William Boyd Allison 



(Lat€ a Senator from Iowa) 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Sixtieth Congress 
Second Session 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
February 6, 1909 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
February 21, 1909 



Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing 



WASHINGTON : • GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : : 1909 



Death of Senator William B. Allison 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE 

Monday, December ~, igoS. 

Mr. Dollivek. Mr. President, it is a painful duty to an- 
nounce to the Senate the death of Senator Allison. He died 
at his home in Dubuque on the 4th day of August. 

At a future time, at the convenience of the Senate, I will ask 
that an hour be set aside for suitable tributes to his memory. 
I offer the resolutions which I send to the desk, and ask for 
their adoption. 

The Vice-President. The Senator from Iowa submits reso- 
lutions, which will be read by the Secretary. 

The resolutions were read, considered by unanimous consent, 
and unanimously agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of the Hon. William Boyd Allison, for more than thirty-five years a 
Senator from the State of Iowa. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives. 

Mr. Dolliver. Mr. President, as a further tribute of re- 
spect to the memory of the late Senator Allison, I move that 
l he Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to, and (at 12 o'clock 
and 15 minutes p. in.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, 
Tuesday, December 8, 1908, at 12 o'clock meridian. 

5 



6 Proceedings in the Senate 

Tuesday, Dea mbi r 8, igo8. 
A message from the House of Representatives transmitted 
resolutions of the House on the death of Hon. William Boyd 
Allison, late a Senator from the State of Iowa. 

Saturday, February 6, igog. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Edward E. Hale, offered the following 
prayer . 

Let its praise famous men ami our fathers who begot its. The 
Lord Until wrought great glory by them through His great power 
from the beginning. Leaders of the people b\ their counsel and 
by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and 
eloquent m their instructions. All thest wen honored in linn 
generations and were the glory of theii times. Then be <>/ 
them that havt left a name behind tliem. Hint their praises 
might be reported. And wnu then will be who liave no me- 
morial, who an perished as they had neve) been. But thest 
were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten. 
The people will tell of their wisdom and the congregation will 
show forth their praise. 

Lei us pray. 

father, we praise Thee, we thank Thee, every day of our lives 
we thank Thee, for the fathers who were before us, for the men 
who made this country, for that country whose God is the Lord, 
for the men who made this Senate and the House of Represent- 
atives, who ordained this Government of the people, for the 
people, by the people. 

We thank the living God; and we ask Thee, Father, to be 
with us, the children and the children's children of these men, 
to lead us where we need leading, to teach us always, to en- 
liven us with the Holy Spirit, with Thy divine light. 

We remember before Thee those men who in this Senate have 
led it forward in dignity and honor before this people Bless 



Proceedings in the Semite 7 

them. Bless us. Be with this people. Father, as a father with 
his children. We ask it in Christ Jesus. 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy 
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in 
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our 
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And 
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine 
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever Amen. 

The Vice- President being absent, the President pro tempore 
took the chair. 

Mr. DoLLIVEK. Mr. President, I offer resolutions for present 
consideration. 

The President pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa sub- 
mits resolutions and asks for their present consideration The 
resolutions will be read. 

The Seeretarv read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the 
Senate has heard the announcement of the death of Hon. William B. 
Allison, late a Senator from the State of Iowa 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay 
fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary transmit to the family of the deceased a 
copy of these resolutions, with the action of the Senate thereon. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the 
House of Representatives 

file resolutions were considered by unanimous consent and 
unanimously agreed to. 



Memorial Addresses: William A'. Allison 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 

Mr. President: The death of Senator Allison has removed 
from American public life a statesman everywhere recognized 
as among the greatest and most useful public servants of the 
past fifty vears. His career will always be famous, not only 
because of the important questions with which he was asso 
dated but also because his career in the Senate was longer 
than that of any other Senator in the history of the Govern- 
ment. If he had lived until the 4th of March he would have 
completed thirty-six years of uninterrupted service in this 
Chamber. 1'rior to his election to the Senate he had served 
eighl years in the House of Representatives. With a break 
of onlv two years he served in Congress more than forty-three 
\ears. This unprecedented term of office not only gave to his 
latei \ears an extraordinary influence in the leadership of 
national affairs but made his old age venerable, surrounding 
him with the reverence of his colleagues and of all who were 
his coworkers in the administration of national government. 
His character commanded the respect of all, and his personality 
attracted to him the good will and affection of all. 

William Boyd Allison was born at Perry, Ohio, March 2, 
[829; so that at the time of his death, August 4, 1908, he was 
approaching So years of age. After completing his studies at 
tile Western Reserve College he began the practice of law at 
Ashland, Ohio, taking an active interest in politics and obtain- 
ing a fair measure of success in his profession. Before he had 



Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 9 

reached the age of 30 years, however, he made up his mind that 
a better chance for distinction and success could be found in 
the West, and accordingly he joined the great procession which 
was moving toward the new States beyond the Mississippi. He 
resumed the practice of law at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857, and 
immediately came to the front as a leader in all the affairs of 
that thriving little city. He was recognized by his neighbors 
as a man of unusual gifts and attainments. The same qualities 
that gave to his later years such grace and charm of manner 
surrounded his early manhood with a widening circle of friends 
and friendly influence. He was a delegate in the convention 
which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. When 
the civil war came on, a friend and neighbor of his youth in 
Ohio, Samuel J. Kirkwood, became governor of Iowa. 

Mr. Allison was already engaged in organizing a regiment 
when the old war governor sent for him and pressed upon him 
his duty to aid the State in the military preparations, which 
were everywhere in progress, by accepting a special assignment 
on the executive's staff. Senator Allison was often heard 
to express his regret that he did not have the opportunity to 
take the field with the troops which he organized, but the 
record of the adjutant-general's office at Des Moines shows that 
he rendered the country an invaluable service in doing, with 
painstaking care, the work which was given him to do. So 
universal was the recognition of his public service that the old 
Dubuque district chose him as its Representative in the Thirty- 
eighth Congress. This election to Congress brought him to the 
capital in the midst of the struggle for the national life. He 
at once took up the hard problems with which the Government 
had to deal in supporting its armies aad caring for the public 
interests connected with its administration. He was, from his 
entrance into the House of Representatives, a leader in that 



io Minion,:/ Addresses: William B. Allison 

-nit popular assembly. He devoted himself with nntiring 
energ) to the practical questions with which the legislation of 
those days was concerned. His favorite studies related to the 
collection and disbursement of the public revenues and to the 
intricate problems of finance with which the Government was 
face to face every day. 

lie was a quiet, patient worker and student, and those who 
remember him at that period of his public life have borne testi- 
mony that his rise in influence in the House of Representatives 
was steady and continuous from the beginning. It has been 
truly said that the House of Representatives subjects its Mem 
Iters to an ordeal so severe that no man can join the company of 
its leadership without the unquestioned possession of the talents 
and habits of mind which such a position exacts. Yet, even in 
the first term of his service, Mr. Allison commended himself to 
his colleagues as a man fit for the highest responsibilities of 
the House, and in his second term lie was appointed a member 
of the Wavs and Means Committee, which at that time, even 
more than it does now, dominated the proceedings of the 
House. This position also gave him the opportunity to lay the 
foundation of that profound knowledge of the revenue system 
of the United States which made him an authority on that and 
kindred subjects in this body. 

A single illustration will show the general character of the 
work which engaged his attention. He was the author — in so 
fat as one man may be said to be the author of a great public 
policy — of the reform in the internal-revenue laws of the United 
States by which the tax on spirits was delivered from the 
frauds which for many years had almost extinguished that 
source of income, by making its collection both burdensome and 
unmanageable. His scheme for the administration of the inter- 
nal-revenue system, while it has been frequently modified in 



Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 11 

minor particulars by subsequent legislation, remains until this 
day substantially as he framed it. 

The conspicuous influence of Mr Allison in the House of 
Representatives gave him such universal popular favor in Iowa 
that at the end of eight years he declined renomination in order 
to become a candidate for Senator. He represented the ambi- 
tions of the younger men of the State, and his entrance into the 
field as a candidate was in the nature of a challenge to the 
political management which had long controlled the politics 
of the State. He was compelled to carry on his campaign under 
many disadvantages, and while he did not succeed in his ambi- 
tion, he established so wide an acquaintance and gained so firm 
a hold on the public good will that his friends counted his de- 
feat as only a temporary reverse, and did not hesitate to present 
his name as a candidate two years later against James Harlan, 
then the most famous and influential western man in public 
life. This political battle has been ever since memorable in 
Iowa politics, and when it ended in the election of Senator 
Allison it marked the beginning of a political era with which 
his name and fame will always be associated in the history of 
the State. 

I desire now to say a few words about the personal charac- 
teristics which enabled this young man, without money or influ- 
ential connections, to overthrow the formidable political influ 
ences which surrounded Senator Harlan, supported, as he was, 
by the administration at Washington, of which he was in some 
respects the most famous and honored champion in the Senate 
of the United States. In the first place, it need hardly be said 
that the people of Iowa recognized Senator Allison's fine 
equipment and preparation for public affairs. In the next place, 
he had the peculiar qualities of mind and heart which inspire 
among the younger men of the State a personal allegiance 



12 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

which followed him all the days of his life. His approach to 
the people had in it a kindliness of manner and of speech which 
gave him access to the hearts of men and made them feel that 
he took an interest in their welfare and appreciated their sup- 
port. In all this there was no affectation; it was the natural 
expression of his character. The same qualities which the 
young men of Iowa found in him at the beginning of his career 
kept him near to the people throughout his political life. He 
never failed in helpful counsel to those who were seeking a 
foothold in public affairs. He encouraged the younger men to 
press forward to the goal of their ambitions. With him it was 
a privilege, as well as a duty, to help others. 

In the long list of those who have represented the various 
Iowa districts in the House of Representatives since he left it, 
there has not been one who did not look up to Senator Allison 
as a friend and helper in his work. During the long period in 
which he presided over the Iowa delegation he invariably effaced 
himself and his own plans m his desire to aid his colleagues and 
to give them a share of the prestige and recognition belonging 
to the public service. It is not a common thing to refer to such 
a matter on an occasion like this, and yet there ought to be a 
public record made of it, that in his Senatorial career he never 
sought to control the appointment of any man to an office. He 
regarded his colleagues in the House of Representatives as his 
constituents as well as representatives of each community 
within the State, and so when the appointment of an Iowa man 
to any office within the gift of the President was sought, the re- 
quest came not from him, but from the whole delegation. And 
with such a nice sense of fairness and justice were the offices 
divided among the congressional districts that every portion of 
the Slate found itself represented, and every Member of Con- 
gress came to feel that Senator Allison had no interest at stake 



Address 0} Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 13 

in the distribution of official positions except the public welfare 
and the peace and harmony of the political party of which he- 
was the leader. 

It is an interesting and unique circumstance that throughout 
his period of service in the Senate he exercised in our local poli- 
tics, in addition to his own vote in the conference of the delega- 
tion, only that influence which arose from the belief of his col- 
leagues that his motives in the guidance of their affairs were 
absolutely free from selfish interest. It is certain that this 
characteristic of his leadership gave to Senator Allison a place 
in the general good will of our people which not even the 
infirmities of age and the near approach of death were able to 
disturb. It is certain, also, that the relation which he assumed 
toward those with whom he was associated in public duties was 
responsible for that freedom from personal contention which he 
enjoyed throughout his public life, and which in a certain sense 
released his energies from the petty disputes of politics and 
enabled him to give to his public duties an unencumbered at- 
tention. He was happily situated. His reelections to the Sen- 
ate came to him as a matter of course, without dissent, and 
without controversy. The State of Iowa was free from a great 
variety of disputed questions about Indians, public lands, forest 
reservations and similar matters, which take up so much of the 
time of Congress. 

And so it came about that the larger business of the Govern- 
ment was never out of his mind, until at length he was looked 
upon everywhere as the master of the practical details of legisla- 
tion without a rival in this body. Other men were more eloquent 
than he; others possibly were more deeply versed in the subtle- 
ties of constitutional interpretation; but when it came to the 
real conduct of the Government, the raising of its revenues, and 
their expenditure, the Senate and the country turned instinc- 



14 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

tively to Senator Allison. We sometimes think that the pro- 
ceedings of Congress arc- all set down in the daily Record. So 
far,as what is said is concerned, that is partly true of the House 
and altogether true of the Senate, but behind these daily pro- 
ceedings, when great issues are at stake, upon which the opinions 
of men are divided, the real proceedings of Congress lie outside 
of the Record, in those interchanges of opinion which gradually 
mold into form the propositions which at length find their way 
into the statute hook. 

The most obvious thing about Senator Allison's biography is 
the fact that his most valuable service, the service' which enabled 
the party to which he belonged to go forward in the discharge 
of its responsibility to the country with a certain measure of 
unity, was not put down in any written record, but belongs to 
those hours of fruitful consultation, where the wisdom of the old 
leader was proved equal to every emergency. It was because it 
bore this relation to our public affairs that in his public utter- 
ances, in debate, and in speeches before the people he avoided 
dogmatism even in its most attractive forms, and made room in 
the expression of his opinions for those differences which he 
knew would be encountered sooner or later, giving leeway for 
composing those disagreements which he knew must be com- 
posed before anything could be actually done. He was some- 
times the object of satire in the press, and even on this floor — a 
mild satire which he enjoyed as much as anybody else — because 
he withheld the final statement of what he desired to have done 
until he had completed the task of bringing the conflicting opin- 
ions of the Senate to some proposition upon which a majority 
could agree. 

In that task, imposed upon him by common consent of his 
colleagues, he would have been a failure if he had begun by 
advertising what he intended to do and by disparaging the 



Address oj Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 15 

views and suggestions of everybody else. And so it happened 
that he lost the renown that belongs to a certain type of states- 
manship in gaining the influence which enabled him to bring 
order out of every chaos of legislation, and thus to carry forward 
the work of Congress. Thus it happened that while everybody 
has understood in a general way the value of Senator Allison's 
labors in the Senate, only those who have been familiar with the 
mechanism of our Government and the difficulties that lie across 
the path of every great proposal of legislation have given him 
the full credit as a statesman to which he is entitled in the dis- 
tribution of honors in the arena of legislative activity. There 
are upon the statute books a good many laws which bear, in 
popular parlance, the name of some reputed author. Yet it 
requires very little knowledge of the course of legislation to 
see how insecure such a title to fame actually is, for there is no 
statute of importance which does not bear upon it the marks 
of the labors of many men, and when it is named for anyone it 
is usually for mere convenience rather than for a more substantial 
reason. Oftentimes the real authors of the measure, those who 
have given the most effective attention to its framing and its 
enactment, are overlooked altogether. It was a peculiar trait 
of Senator Allison that while every important act of Congress 
for a whole generation has had the benefit of his judgment and 
bears the evidences of his legislative skill, yet he was never over- 
anxious to put his own name on any of them, or even to divide 
with others the passing celebrity of their authorship. 

Early in his senatorial service it came within the line of his 
dutv to frame the present government of the District of Colum- 
bia on principles that have not only worked well here, but have 
become the basis of a reform in municipal government which 
now promises to be general throughout the United States Yet 
few citizens of the District, even among those whose memories 



16 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

go back to tht time when the District government was operated 
for the benefit of contractors and local politicians, ever think of 
vSenator Allison in connection with the reform which made the 
modern city of Washington possible. Few men, even among 
those who have written histories of the transaction, connect the 
name of vSenator Allison with the act of Congress for the 
resumption of specie payments; yet, although he was among the 
younger Members of the Senate, he was one of a subcommittee 
which framed that act, and his knowledge of the subject was 
so generally appreciated in the Senate that he was appointed a 
member of the Finance Committee and given a potent voice in 
its deliberations from that time on. There were few men in 
either House of Congress who gave to the coinage question a 
profounder study than he; but it is not generally known that 
we owe to him more than to any other man the adoption of those 
measures which saved the United States from the uncertainties 
which would have followed the free coinage of silver, at a time 
when the majority of both Houses of Congress were committed 
to that experiment. 

In more recent years, as a member of the Committee on 
Finance, Senator Allison occupied a foremost place among the 
leaders who have shaped the financial and industrial policy of 
the Government. His labors in the Senate, while including 
practically every subject with which Congress has had to deal, 
were confined mainly to the Committee on Appropriations and 
the Committee on Finance. He became a member of the former 
when he entered the Senate, while his services on the Finance 
Committee date from the Forty-fifth Congress. In 1881 he 
became chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and in that 
position his most significant public service was rendered. That 
great committee, especially in these later years, has not only 
had to do with the national budget, but the pressure upon the 



Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 17 

time of Congress has so increased that the appropriation bills 
have often carped far-reaching acts of legislation affecting the 
greatest possible variety of subjects. It was in the work of 
that committee that Senator Allison was most at home The 
late Senator Hoar says of him in his Autobiography of Seventy 
Years : 

He has controlled more than any other man, indeed, more than any 
other ten men, the vast and constantly increasing public expenditures, 
amounting to more than a thousand millions annually. It has been an 
economical and wise expenditure. That is a knowledge in which nobody 
else in the Senate, except Senator Hale of Maine and Senator Cockrell 
of Missouri, can compare with him. 

But the business of the Appropriations Committee did not by 
any means absorb all his energies. Senator Allison was a 
student of our tariff problems throughout his public life, and 
for accuracy of knowledge and painstaking research no states- 
man of his time outranks him. Among all the numerous 
changes which have taken place in the tariff laws during the 
last thirty years it may be with truth said that the hand of 
Senator Allison is seen in every one. He was a member of 
the subcommittee which prepared the tariff law of 1883. The 
historic revision of 1890, which gave to William McKinley a 
parliamentary renown hardly overshadowed by the presidential 
office, was more truly the work of the Finance Committee of 
the Senate than of the Ways and Means Committee of the 
House. In the previous Congress, after the Mills bill had 
passed the House, it was referred in the Senate committee to a 
subcommittee, of which Senator Allison was the chairman. 
The whole bill, in form and in substance, was recast, and a .Senate 
substitute prepared under Senator Allison's immediate direc- 
tion, with arduous labor lasting far into the summer, approved 
by the Committee on Finance and reported to the Senate by 
Senator Allison. That measure became the basis upon which 
78135 — S. Doc. 766, 60-2 2 



i8 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

General Harrison's campaign for the Presidency was made. 
It was debated in the Senate until the adjournment of Congress 
in October, and in the session after the presidential election 
.Senator Allison's substitute for the Mills bill passed the 
Senate. So that when the new Congress convened in the 
December following, the Ways and Means Committee had 
before it the tariff bill which, with only minor alterations, passed 
into history as the McKinley law of 1890. 

In the same Congress, the law reforming the customs admin- 
istration, framed by a subcommittee of which Senator Allison 
was chairman, was reported to the Senate, and under his guid- 
ance passed this body — first as an independent measure and 
afterwards as a part of the Senate substitute for the Mills bill. 
In tlie Fifty-first Congress Mr. McKinley introduced the meas- 
ure with a few unimportant changes. It passed the House; the 
Senate restored it to the exact form in which Senator Allison 
had framed it, and it is known now as the administrative cus- 
toms act of 1890. It will be seen, therefore, that the credit, in 
a just measure, of laying the foundation of the existing admin- 
istrative system applicable to our internal taxation, and to our 
customs revenue as well, belongs to Senator Allison. His 
incomparable genius for legislation was exhibited even after 
his failing strength began to admonish him that the night was 
coming when no man can work. He probably never set him- 
self to a more difficult or a more important task than when, in 
the Fifty-ninth Congress, after the pending amendment to the 
interstate commerce law had torn the Senate into contending 
factions, filling the country with all forms of clamor and 
suspicion, the old leader, in broken health, but with faculties 
unimpaired, brought Congress to a realization of its duty, 
and. without sacrificing the convictions of any Senator, 
united all parties and all factions in the passage of that gre;ti 



Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 19 

We may not doubt that there will be occasions in the future 
when the Senate will need the counsel and guidance of .Sena I or 
Allison. But it is not too much to believe that the lessons of 
toleration and respect for the opinions of others which are 
taught in the life of this great American statesman will never 
lose their influence in the Government of the United States. 
For, after all, it is not of the exploits of a parliamentary leader, 
nor the achievements of an experienced legislator, that we are 
thinking to-day. It is rather the quiet, courtly life he lived 
among us, the helpful things he did, the gentle and gracious 
words he used to speak, which are in our hearts at this hour 
and will be kept in our memories while we live. Already the 
Senate, departing from the custom of a long time, has directed 
that a picture of him shall be hung in a corridor of the Capitol 
by the side of the favorite statesmen of other generations. 

The people of Iowa who followed him with loving confidence 
for nearly half a century, even down to the valley of the 
shadow of death, will build a monument to him within the 
borders of the State which gave him his high commission, and 
will ask permission to erect a statue here, that the affection 
and reverence of the Nation which gave a crown of peculiar 
glory to his old age may have a permanent expression in the 
Capital where the great work of his life was done. 



Manorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Hale, of Maine 

Ii is not difficult, Mr. President, to make a proper estimate of 
the character and public service of the late Senator from Iowa, 
for the reason that, high as was that character and remarkable 
as was his public service, all his great contributions to legislation 
and his protracted service and continuous unfaltering labor, 
with their marked and influential results, were open as the 
day. 

Senator ALLISON'S temperament and his connection with the 
great working committees in both Houses of Congress, in each 
of which he had long service, brought him to the consideration 
nf every really important question and subject which from year 
to \ear has interested the American people. He dealt with 
all these questions in a plain, straightforward way, and brought 
to the task of maturing wise legislation unbounded good sense, 
fidelity of purpose, and a capacity for sustained labor such as 
no other man whom I have personally known in public life in 
either House has ever possessed. 

There was nothing sensational in his nature. He was not 
excitable. He was not vain or egotistic. He never sought to 
attract public attention. He never posed for the galleries. I 
do not think, in his very long service, that lie ever once gave 
notice that on a selected day lie would make a speech; but, from 
the beginning of his career in Congress, he bent his whole mind 
and summoned all his energies to the thoughtful consideration 
of every question that arose involving the real interests of the 
American people. And, as the wars passed, this character 
and temperament and this useful service made him more and 



Address of Mr. Hale, of Maine 21 

more an authority in Congress until at last, and for- long years 
in his later senatorial life, he stood without an equal or a rival 
as the arbiter and director in almost every field of legislation. 

His term of service in the two Houses, beginning in the middle 
of the civil war and extending from that with hardly a break 
for more than forty years, covered a period which witnessed the 
discussions and conflicts that arose over every great question 
which for half a century has interested and aroused the people 
of this Republic. The conduct of the great war, the reconstruc- 
tion measures, the amendments to the Constitution, the restora- 
tion of the States, the financial policy of administrations and 
parties, the tariff, the currency, the intervention by the General 
Government into the business of corporations — upon all these, 
the fullest information was at the fingers' ends of the late 
Senator from Iowa. In any given emergency he knew better 
what to. do and what could be done than any other Member of 
Congress or of any branch of the Government, and it was well 
for the Republic when his admonition and counsel were heeded 
and his mental processes were crystallized into the laws of the 
land. 

He was a factor in the House of Representatives. He was 
the unquestioned leader in the Senate. He headed great com- 
missions that investigated important subjects in foreign lands. 
He more than once declined service as a Cabinet officer at the 
head of leading departments,, and he came very near to the 
Presidencv. He had almost perfect equipment for that great 
place, and when he came so nigh and then missed, his calm mind 
was never ruffled by his defeat, and no man, however near to 
him or how well he might know his incomings and outgoings, 
ever, either in action or speech, saw him influenced in his course 
bv the memory of disappointment and failure. He would take 
all things as they came to him, whether of success or failure. 



22 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

and placidly abide the result. He knew how, as John Bur- 
roughs expresses it, "to serenely fold his hands and wait." 

His sterling qualities, joined with what 1- may call great 
shrewdness and unbounded tact, kept him from making enemies, 
and yet preserved through his long life the increasing respect, 
regard, and affection of his friends. 

What shall 1 say, Mr. President, about his other side? His 
generous heart, the "unexhausted kindliness which glowed like 
daily sunrise there," his patience, his charity, his magnanimity, 
and the line which he felt for the friends who were nearest 
and dearest to him, and the love which he inspired in turn 
from them. 

Into this domain I can not enter far. An acquaintance, 
formed forty years ago, had ripened into what I believe was 
a real friendship between Senator Allison and me. I dwell 
with pleasure upon the years of this long attachment, but I 
realize, Mr. President, that on my side of that friendship there 
was fault, and that, 1 fear, too often. I waken in the night 
and turn on my pillow with the sad recollection of my inade- 
quacy. 1 was not as kind and considerate and gentle as he, 
but his great mantle of charity covered my transgressions, and 
in his heart was a wellspring of forgiveness. 

How we shall miss him all of us know. For me, I am sure 
that the remainder of my service will never be to me person- 
ally what it was when he was present. It can never be what 
it was when 1 was his companion and friend and he was my 
exalted and accepted leader. 



Address of Mr. Teller, of Colorado 23 



Address of Mr. Teller, of Colorado 

Mr. President: My acquaintance with Senator Allison 
began with my admission to the Senate over thirty-two years 
ago. He had then been a Member of the Senate for three years 
and had already earned for himself an enviable position in this 
body. I earlv learned to admire him for his strength of char- 
acter and his many excellent qualities of mind and heart, and 
formed for him a sincere friendship, which continued unbroken 
until the day of his death. 

It will be but a feeble tribute that I shall pay to his memory 
to-day. I can onlv sav a few words, which will in nowise 
express my feelings as to the loss sustained by this body and 
bv the country at large in the death of this distinguished 
Senator. 

William Boyd Allison was born at Perry, Ohio, March 2, 
1829. He attended the academy at Wooster, Ohio, two years, 
and spent one year at the once somewhat famous Allegheny 
College, Meadville, Pa. He commenced the study of law in 1 848, 
and in 1850 was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he supported 
John C. Fremont for President, and in 1857 he removed to 
Dubuque, Iowa, and resumed the practice of law. He took an 
active part in politics, was a delegate to the Republican state 
convention of 1859, and was a delegate to the Republican 
national convention at Chicago in i860. 

He was appointed on Governor Kirkwood's staff at the com- 
mencement of the civil war and assisted in the organization of 
the Iowa volunteers. He was elected to the Thirty-eighth, 
Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses. In 1870 he 



24 Memoi inl Addresses: William B. Allison 

declined a nomination for Congress and became a candidate foi 
the United States Senate, but he failed of an election; in [872 
he was a successful candidate against the Hon. James Harlan, 
and took his seat in the Senate March 3, [873. He was reelected 
in 1878, 1884, 1890, 1896, and 1902. He received a majority 
of the votes of his party at a primary election in June, [908, 
for reelection, and if he had lived would have been reelected. 
Ik- served thirty-five years and five months continuously in 
tlie United States Senate, having been elected for thirty-six 
years, making a record for length of senatorial service never 
before equaled. 

While a Member of the House of Representatives he took an 
active part in the legislation of that period, and in the Thirty- 
ninth Congress he became a member of the Committee on Ways 
and Means. On his admission to the Senate, in 1873, he was 
assigned to the Committees on Appropriations, Indian Affairs, 
and 1 'elisions. lie was chairman of the Committee on Indian 
Affairs in the Forty-fourth Congress 1 1875) and became a mem- 
ber of the Committee on finance during the Forty-fifth Con- 
gress 1 1877). 

He became chairman of the Committee on Appropriations 
during the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress (1881), 
and retained that position for twenty-six years, and was chair- 
man of the committee at the time of his death, which occurred 
at Dubuque, Iowa, on the 4th of August. [908, having been a 
member of that important committee for the entire period of 
his service in the Senate. 

President Garfield tendered him the Treasury portfolio, which 
he declined, and the same position was offered him in (888 by 
President Harrison, but he did not accept it 

President McKinley offered him the position of Secretary of 
State, but he declined this much-sought-after position in the 



Address of Mr. Teller, of Colorado 25 

public service, because he believed he could be of greater benefit 
to the people of his State and of the country at large in the 
chosen field of his life work — the Senate 

During his senatorial service he gave much consideration to 
financial questions. In 1878 he was a member of the Committee 
on Finance, and was influential in securing the passage of an 
act for the coinage of silver, usually denominated the Bland- 
Allison Act." 

In 1892 he was the chairman of the American delegates who 
attended the International Monetary Conference in Brussels, in 
which conference he took an active and important part, contend- 
ing for the use of both gold and silver in the monetary system 
of the world, and while his services in that conference secured 
nothing for his contention, he demonstrated his knowledge of 
and acquaintance with the history of monetary affairs through- 
out the world, and his services were highly appreciated by both 
bimetallists and monometallists, especially of his own country. 
While he doubted the ability of the United States alone to re- 
store silver to its former relations to gold, he believed it quite 
possible for that to be done by international agreement. 

Although he was a bimetallist, when his party adopted in its 
platform at St. Louis in 1896 the gold standard, he accepted 
its determination and loyally supported its candidate for Presi- 
dent with zeal and abilitv. 

His long sen-ice on the Committees on Appropriations and 
Finance made him familiar with the financial and economic 
conditions of the country, and at the time of his death he was 
an authoritv in the Senate on all questions concerning revenue 
and expenditures. 

He was a firm believer in the doctrine of protection to Ameri- 
can industries and American labor; he took an active part in 
the preparation and passage of all tariff laws that have been 



26 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

enacted since he entered public life, yel he was tolerant of those 
who differed with him on the subject and recognized in debate 
and otherwise that his opponents were actuated by the same 
patriotic sentiment in their opposition that he was in his sup 
port. lie was kind and courteous in debate on all subjects, 
and his influence was felt on all subjects which he supported 
or opposed 

He was kind and considerate in his intercourse with Ins 
fellows. His death was a loss to the State he had honored by 
his service here and also to the nation. It may be said of him, 
as Cicero said of another, " boni senatoris prudentia;" he had 
the wisdom of a good Senator 



Address of Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. 



Address of Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island 

Mr. President: The judgment of contemporaries as to the 
estimate that should properly be placed upon the life and 
services of a public man may not be infallible; the lines of our 
perspective may be obscured by personal admiration or affection ; 
but making allowance for this, we can, I believe, feel sure that 
the future historian, having in view the record of his work and 
achievements, will give Senator Allison a place in the first rank 
of the statesmen of his time. 

He was a master of the arts of conciliation and construction. 
Other men have been more brilliant in debate; others have 
been more frequently in the public eye; the work of others has 
appealed more strongly to the passions and sensibilities of men, 
but no one has left a greater impress upon the useful legislation 
of his generation than he. He had a wider and better knowledge 
than any of all parts of our governmental machinery, and he 
knew better than any what provision was necessary for its 
successful and efficient operation. 

His active work in the Senate was largely in connection with 
the Committee on Appropriations, of which he was for so long 
the chairman. The character and magnitude of his work in 
this connection has been described by other Senators. Person- 
ally I was more familiar with his service on the Committee on 
Finance. For twenty-seven years I was associated with him in 
the active work of that committee, of which he was always an 
influential member. These years of constant association and 
close companionship were to me the source of ever-present and 
unalloyed satisfaction and delight. Their memory will remain 



2 8 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

with me forever. During Senator Allisons membership he 
look a leading part in the preparation and discussion of all the 
legislation reported from the committee. Under his leadership 
early in his public careei the internal-revenue laws, especially 
those in reference to the collection of the taxes upon distilled 
spirits, were thoroughly reconstructed. In association with the 
late Senator Beck and myself, he prepared the customs adminis- 
trative bill of (888, which became a law two years later, and 
which created a new organization and new methods for the col- 
lection of the revenue from customs These two acts furnished, 
perhaps, the best evidence of the Senator's constructive ability. 
Senator Allison took a leading part in the preparation and 
enactment of the tariff laws of 1883, [890, and [897. 1 was 
associated with him for months in the labor of preparation of 
the tariff bill of iSSS, which involved an entire reconstruction 
of tlie methods of classifying and imposing the duties upon 
customs, as well as a complete revision of the rates. This bill 
furnished the basis of the act of 1890, known as the "McKinley 
bill." 

SenatOl ALLISON reported from the committee the national 
bank act of 1882, which made important changes in the system. 
He took an important part in all the financial legislation which 
was considered or adopted during his long service in the Senate. 
He was a leading member of the subcommittee that prepared 
and reported the gold standard act of [900. He was a careful 
student of all these subjects and the wide range of his knowl- 
edge of all was remarkable. 

1 have presented but a brief outline of tlie Senator's invalu- 
able services in connection with the important subjects referred 
to the Finance Committee, but the influence of the Senator 
upon the legislation of the Senate was not, by any means, 
confined to measures reported from the Committees on Appro- 



Address of Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island 29 

priations or Finance. He gave to every question of importance 
pending in the Senate careful and thoughtful consideration, 
and his opinions on all were given great and controlling weight 
by his associates. 

The wisdom of his judgment and his intelligent industry 
made him a leader of the Senate. An acknowledged leader, 
he never paraded his powers of leadership, and was apparently 
unconscious of their existence. His position in the Senate was 
unique; he was oldest in service, wisest in counsel, the friend 
and mentor of all. He was at all times genial and kind, con- 
siderate and helpful of others. No one came within the circle 
of his acquaintance without being attracted by the irresistible 
charm of his personality, which never faded. He was ever 
calm, patient, industrious. He was never aggressive or sensa- 
tional in his methods, but always seeking through sensible 
measures to secure the best practical results. 

Through the death of Senator Allison the Senate loses its 
foremost member. The loss to the Senate and the country 
comes at a time when we can ill afford to be deprived of his 
wisdom and the benefit of his experience. Confronted with a 
rapidlv increasing number of complex and important problems 
for solution, may we not hope that, while we mourn the loss 
of the counsel and assistance of our dear friend, the lessons 
of his life will incite us to greater efforts and inspire us with 
greater strength and faith to meet the exacting demands of the 
future? 



30 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Bacon, of Georgia 

Mr. President: When last a similar duty and privilege were 
mine, standing a few months ago in this place, I offered my 
feeble tribute to the memory of a young man 32 years of age, 
whose service in the Senate had been of the brief space of less 
than two months. 

To-day, when performing the same office for another, I lay 
my brief offering upon the bier of the veteran Senator who, 
when at the close of the last session of Congress he last passed 
without the doors of this Chamber, had reached the eightieth 
year of his age, and for more than thirty-five consecutive years 
had represented his State in the Senate. Strikingly remark- 
able indeed is the record of that service. 

As has been already stated to-day, in its length it surpassed 
that of any other Senator from the foundation of the Govern- 
ment to the present day. But remarkable as is the number of 
years which, each as link joined to link, made up the lengthened 
term, the character of that service was even more noteworthy 
than was its unprecedented length. 

Prepared bv eight years of prior service in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, the records of his work show that immediately 
upon his entry into the Senate he began actively and efficiently 
the prosecution of labors which are usually undertaken by 
Senators only after the lapse of years of senatorial service. I 
will not particularize as to his great career in the Senate during 
more than a third of a century; but it is safely within the facts 
to sav that in the debates and in the final enactment of meas- 
ures he strongly impressed his work upon every piece of im- 



Address 0} Mr. Bacon, 0) Georgia 31 

portant legislation which was enacted by Congress during the 
eventful period of his service here. 

He was not quick to press himself to the front in the active 
debates in the Senate. Nevertheless in the final stages of almost 
every important controverted and difficult question, his were 
most frequently the words which in the end determined the fate 
of the measure, and, if successful, the shape it should finally 
bear; and when, as was often the case, his party associates 
were upon any question divided in their views and wishes, it 
was he who was looked to by them to find the acceptable ground 
upon which the factions finally united in harmonious action; 
and where no political question was involved, his influence in 
the shaping of legislation was as potential with Democratic Sena- 
tors as it was with those of his own political faith. Confidence 
in his adamantine integrity, in his unswerving fidelity to the 
public interest, in his extended familiarity with all governmental 
affairs, and in the correctness of his well-poised judgment was 
as implicit and as manifest in its practical expression on this 
side of the Chamber as it was among his political fellows on the 
other side of the aisle. 

In the full enjoyment of this well-earned and general con- 
fidence it is not to be wondered that he thus made his strong 
impress upon the important legislation of more than three and 
a half decades. 

And yet, marked and notable as is this fact, if called upon to 
specify the most distinguishing feature in his remarkable sena- 
torial career, I would not point to his connection with and in- 
fluence upon the great legislative events of his day, each of 
which stands out in historic prominence, but I would say that 
this most distinguishing feature was found in his unosten- 
tatious, unwearied labor of thirty-five veins, his devotion to 
that wide-reaching work, requiring continuous study, thought. 



Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

and care, and exacting from him never-flagging industry, a labor 
prompted by an innate fidelity to duly so natural that in him it 
was unconscious— a labor guided by large experience and evenly 
balanced judgment, through which in large measure the com- 
plex, intricate, and vast machinery of this great Government 
has been during this long term of years kept in successful 
operation 

His mind and memory were a great storehouse of knowledge 
of the needs and resources of the Government, and the Senate 
at all times leaned upon him as upon a strong and all-sustain 
ing staff. His relation to the Senate was that of the trusted 
pilot to the ship, with vision keen and hand unerring, guiding 
it past the sunken rocks and round the threatening shoals. 
through the deepening channel to the safe and restful harbor. 

Before disease halt laid its wasting hand upon him, Senator 
ALLISON was in his person unusually handsome and engaging. 
His figure was large and well proportioned, His head was 
massive and shapely. His features were clear-cut, and in their 
expression there was the not to lie mistaken evidence of both 
gentleness and strength, each in marked degree. His courtesy, 
both in debate and in personal intercourse, was unvarying. No 
one who knew him can forget the kindly eye and the ever-ready 
smile, the silent messengers which told of the tender and sym- 
pathetic heart within. 

Mr. President, in the years of mv association with him here 
1 have never heard one Senator say of him an unkind, an un- 
generous, or a harsh word. His memory is to each and all of 
us a cherished possession. We all loved him as a brother and 
we each venerated him as a father, and it is not a formal but a 
heartfelt tribute of affection which we pay to him to-day. 

Sir, in all these years I have been so accustomed to see him 
hen- that it is difficult for me to realize that I shall not again 



Address of Mr. Bacon, of Georgia 3$ 

see his familiar form in this Chamber, and at times 1 almost 
again look for him to enter and take his accustomed seat, the 
second from the aisle. And who is there who does not in mem- 
ory now see him walk from that seat across the front of the 
desk and out by that door which leads to the room of the Com 
mittee on Appropriations, the scene of his unremitting labors 1 

Mr. President, my term of service here has been short indeed 
when compared with his And yet there are but 12 Senators 
now members of the body who were here when my first term 
began, and on March 4 that number will be reduced to 10. 
Manv of those who have gone from among us still survive and 
are engaged in other fields, but not a few of them shall be no 
more seen of men. As we look around, memory again places 
them in their accustomed seats and again brings back to us the 
echoes of the familiar voices of the men with whom, since my 
brief service, we have labored and associated here. 

Allison, Yoorhees, Sherman, Harris, of Tennessee; Walthall, 
Morrill, George, Hoar, Gear, Vest, Gibson, Hawley, Palmer, 
White, of California; Whyte. of Maryland; Piatt, of Connecti- 
cut; Gordon, Gorman, Proctor, Jones, of Arkansas; Morgan, 
Wolcott, Sewell, Pettus, Hanna, Mitchell, of Wisconsin; Mc- 
Millan, Davis, of Minnesota; Mallory, Shoup, Earle, Bate, 
CafTery, Vilas, Bryan, Latimer, and Carmack. 

Long indeed is the lengthening list of those who in the mist> 

of the vanishing years beckon us on to the shadowy land. 

We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on; and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. 

78135— S !>..>• 706.60-.' 3 



34 Memorial Addn sses: William B, Alii 



Address of Mr. Cullom, of Illinois 

Mr. President: To speak the praises of the late distinguished 
Senator from Iowa, with whom I served in Congress for thirty- 
two years, is to me a labor of gratitude and love. 

Senator Allison, whose death we are commemorating to-day, 
was an American citizen of the very highest type. For half a 
century he stood before the country as one of the foremost 
statesmen, a man of perfect moral proportions, and one of 
whose integrity, honesty, and purity of purpose there was never 
either private or public question. 

Ilis career was remarkable in the annals of our public life — 
indeed 1 am not sure hut that in many respects it was the mosl 
remarkable carter of any statesman in our history. Away hack 
in 1855 a delegate to the Ohio state convention, presided over 
by John Sherman, that nominated Salmon 1'. Chase for gov- 
ernor of Ohio; an active supporter of Fremont in 1856; a dele- 
gate and one of the secretaries of the convention of [860 that 
nominated Abraham Lincoln for President ; Representative in 
Congress, Senator almost ever since; his public life forms a com- 
plete legislative history of the United States for nearly fifty 
years, and was coincident with the life of the Republican party 
from its very beginning. 

I first became acquainted with Senator Allison on becoming 
a Member of Congress in 1865. Me had preceded me one term, 
and, although only at the beginning of his second term, he was 
made a member of the great Committee on Ways and Means, 
and I found that even then he was regarded as among the 



Address oj Mr. Cullom, of Illinois 35 

ablest and most influential .of the western Members. We at 
once became friends, and it is a pleasure for me to think that 
the friendship formed forty-five years ago continued until his 
death. 

There was never a more momentous period in our historv than 
in the dark days of 1863, when Senator Allison entered Con- 
gress. The civil war was raging, there had been no decisive 
Union victories, the battle of Gettysburg had not been fought, 
and it was thought that the fate of the Union was trembling in 
the balance (although I never myself believed that it was 
written in the book of fate that this Union should be dissolved) ; 
we were a divided nation, sorely afflicted, passing through a 
baptism of fire and blood. He lived to see the Union saved, 
the nation cemented more closely together than ever, to see the 
country which he had served so long and so well increase three- 
fold in population and wealth, and take a foremost place among 
the nations of the world. 

Senator Allison's conspicuous service in the House, as I 
recollect it, and as the records show, pertained principally to 
appropriations and finance, the refunding of the debt, reduction 
of internal taxation, revision of the tariff, and kindred legislation. 

From the very beginning of his congressional career he made 
a specialty of matters pertaining to finance, and he finally 
became one of the recognized authorities on financial questions, 
lie was not a high-tariff advocate. The sentiment in Iowa, 
just as in Illinois, was not in favor of a high tariff. Hence it 
was that during my service in both the House and Senate I 
■was always glad to work in harmony with Senator Allison in 
reference to all matters pertaining to the tariff. 

It has been said that Senator Allison was a conservative, if 
I might term it as such, all his life, and so lie was in a sense. 
During his younger years, however, as a Member of the House, 



36 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

he was not the- quiet, conservative man, never saying an unkind 
word in reference to anyone, that he was after he came to the 
Senate. Indeed, on some occasions in the House he was notably 
aggressive. 

He was specially hitter toward President Johnson. I remem- 
ber very well his speech on the violation of the tenure-of-office 
act and the bitterness with which he attacked President John- 
son. His language on that occasion was such that those who 
knew him intimately here would scarcely believe he was capable 
of uttering it. He denounced President Johnson in unmeasured 
! en ns, and urged that he lie impeached and removed from 
office; that unless he was removed, his usurpations would con- 
tinue until the republican government itself would lie destroyed 
and on its rnins a dictatorship established in the interest of 
the worst enemies of liberty and law. 

But to remain cool and calm in those days of bitterness was 
more than could be expected of human nature. 

( >nr can scarcely realize now the intense feeling prevailing in 
i • -s in those davs. The great President had just been laid 
, what was thought to be a conspiracy on the part of some 
of ! outhern leaders. Mr. Allison supported, as I did, the 
■hment of Mr. Johnson. We were wrong. There was no 
cons]> : racy on the part of the South to assassinate Mr. Lincoln. 
And in later years I know Senator ALLISON often said it would 
ha occn one of the greatest mistakes in our history to have 
removed President Johnson. 

Mr. President. I will lie pardoned for dwelling on Senator 
Allison's service in the House, because his really great career 
commenced when he entered this body in 1873. My excuse is 
that there are many here, in fact all of us, who knew him more 
or less intimately as a Senator, but there are so few, so very 
few, who remember him as a Member of the House, and it so 



Address of Mr. Ciillom, of Illinois 37 

happens that I am the only Member of either House who served 
with Senator Allison in the Fortieth Congress and voted for 
the impeachment of President Johnson. 

William B. Allison's career as a Cenator is history. The 
history of our financial legislation since 1873 could not be writ- 
ten without there appearing on every page, as a dominating fac- 
tor, the name of Allison. 

When I entered this body in 1883 he was already a leader, 
the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, which posi- 
tion, I believe, he occupied longer than any other Senator in 
our history. Not only did he bear the great burden imposed 
upon him as chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, but 
for many years he was one of the two leading members of the 
Committee on Finance, the Senator from Rhode Island being 
the other. All during his public service I never knew him to be 
wrong on public questions. He was always a safe man to 
follow. 

As has been stated by the Senator from Colorado [Mr. fel- 
ler], he was a member of the International Monetary Confer- 
ence of 1892 and was desirous of settling the so-called "silver 
question" harmoniously between the two parties, if it could be 
settled, but, nevertheless, he was a firm believer in the gold 
standard. When others faltered, when even the late President 
McKinley doubted, he stood firm for the gold standard, and sub- 
sequent history has proved that his judgment was correct. I 
do not suppose anvone will now seriously question the service 
he rendered his country in saving it from free silver in 1877. 
He was a leading factor in the resumption of specie payment, in 
the framing of every tariff law from 1877 to and including the 
Dingley Act, in the establishment of the gold standard, thus 
earning out the party's pledge of 1896. His senatorial record 
has been fully given by his colleague. 



38 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

He was a wise man. He had an extraordinary control over 
members in settling troublesome questions and bringing about 
harmony in the Senate. He had wonderful influence not only 
with members of his own party, but with members of the oppo 
sition. Everyone had confidence in him. His statements were 
accepted without question. 

He never attempted oratory, but by cool, logical argument he 
molded the opinions of legislators He was one of those even- 
tempered, level-headed, sound, sensible men to whom we natu- 
rally turned when there wire difficult questions to settle. We 
all had confidence in his judgment, and his integrity of purpose 
was never doubted. 

By his wise conservatism as chairman of the Committee mi 
Appropriations he saved the Government untold millions of 
dollars. At the same time he was not unreasonably economical. 
He realized the.growth of the nation and its growing necessi- 
ties, and appropriated accordingly. 

Senator ALLISON was repeatedly offered Cabinet positions, 
probably more often than any other man in public life. Gar 
field and Harrison both urged him to accept the Secretaryship 
of the Treasury. Mr. McKinley desired that Senator Allison 
should become a member of his Cabinet, but he declined, as he 
had so often declined it before. The fact was, Mr. President, 
he preferred to remain in the Senate. He found the work here 
far more congenial to his tastes than the work of any other 
office. 

I always doubted whether he eared vers' much even for the 
Presidency. < >n several occasions his friends had urged him 
for the nomination, and on one occasion, at least, it seemed 
almost certain that he would be the nominee. 

His failure to secure the office of President never seemed to 
trouble him in the slightest particular. If he felt any disap- 
pointment, which 1 do not believe he did, he never showed it. 



Address of Mr. Cullotn, oj Illinois 39 

Mr. President, Senator Allison took a keen interest in all 
our national legislation, and there was not a great measure 
passed in the Senate during his term of service that did not 
receive his careful consideration, and, indeed, his genius for 
suggesting happy compromises was instrumental in securing 
the passage of important legislation entirely apart from finance 
or appropriations. It was Senator Allison who suggested to 
me in 1886 the necessity for the appointment of a special com- 
mittee to investigate the question of the regulation of interstate 
carriers, which resulted in the passage of the original act to reg- 
ulate commerce, and it so happened, as Senators well remember, 
it was Senator Allison who, during the last Congress, pro- 
posed the compromise which resulted in the passage of the 
Hepburn Act, perfecting the original act. I only give this as 
an illustration of his influence in shaping general legislation. 

He was the trusted adviser of President after President — 
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinlev, and Roose- 
velt all called upon him. I do not suppose there was another 
Senator who had to a greater extent their confidence. During 
the critical period preceding the Spanish-American war, and 
during the war, he was constantly advising with Mr. McKin- 
ley, and later President Roosevelt followed the wise example 
of his predecessor, and he would have been, had he lived, the 
confidant of the President-elect, Mr. Taft, who, since his death, 
has said that Mr. Allison was a warm friend of his father, and 
during his own public life he consulted him as a son would his 
father. 

Senator Allison served longer in the Senate than any other 
man in all our history. He broke Benton's thirty year record, 
thought extraordinary at the time. He broke the long record 
of the late Senator Morrill. Senator Morrill served twelve 
years in the House and thirty-one years and nine months in 



AO Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

the Senate, making a total continuous service in Congress of 
forty-three vears and nine months. Senator Allison served 
eight years in the House and thirty-five years in the Senate, 
making a total of forty-three years and five months, but a few 
months shorter than Senator Morrill's total service in both 
Houses. 

He was a member of the Ways and Means Committee when 
Senator Morrill was its chairman. He was a member of the 
Finance Committee when Senator Morrill was its chairman, and 
could have succeeded him. 

They resembled each other not only in point of service and 
in the peculiar nature of their service, but also in their kindly, 
agreeable dispositions. But, unlike the veteran Senator from 
Vermont, whose old-time ideas of powers and duties of the 
Government made him hesitate to follow his party when it 
advanced upon what he regarded as new paths, the late senior 
Senator from Iowa was always fully abreast of the times and 
was willing to follow his party even though it might take what 
the more conservative would regard as an advanced position. 
Senator ALLISON took a leading part in framing the policies of 
the Republican party and, while not an offensive partisan, was 
always a strict party man. Even though he was conservative, 
he did not hesitate to follow his party to the full extent in the 
policy of expansion. Indeed, the only ease within my recollec- 
tion when he voted against the almost solid Republican major- 
it v in the Senate was on the ship-subsidy bill, when Senator 
Allison and Senator Spooner, followed by their two colleagues, 
very much to the surprise of every one, opposed the bill. 

It has been said that the late Senator from Iowa was an 
embodiment of American legislative history for half a century. 
Ih was the colleague of many of the great men of the Repub-. 
lie— Sumner, Conkling, Morton, Trumbull, Thurman, Harrison, 



Address of Mr. Cullom, of Illinois 41 

McKinley. He entered public life with Garfield and Blaine and 
remained a stalwart worker in the forum of politics years after 
Garfield reached the goal of his highest ambition, only to fall 
by the hand of an assassin, and until long after James G. Blaine 
had retired to private life and passed away. These great and 
brilliant statesmen all passed to the beyond, while he still wore 
the toga of senatorial dignity when death's message came to 
him. 

Along the course of his career from his early life, devoted to 
the practice of the law, to the call of the people of his district in 
Congress, and to the close of his public life, his was not the 
showy brilliancy of a Douglas, a Blaine, a Conkling, a McKinley, 
but the steady quiet life of the industrious, useful worker and 
successful legislator. 

In the community in which he lived in the State of his adop- 
tion, which would have continued him in the sen-ice as long as 
he was willing to serve, in the House of Representatives, in the 
Senate, in every relation in life in which he was called upon to 
serve a part, everywhere and under all circumstances he was 
respected for his abilities and honored for his service. 

He was laid to rest in — 

The sanctuary of the tomb, beneath the quiet of the star-,, wrapt in the 
dreamless drapery of eternal peace — 

Lamented by the whole nation as one of the ablest, the most 
practical, the most useful of American legislators and statesmen. 



Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia 

Mr. President: A guide, a counselor, and a leader— so to 
speak, a father in Israel — lias left us in the vanished form of 
William B. Allison, to whom we had become so accustomed 
thai his presence seems to abide. He was a great Senator, even 
as he was a good citizen and a noble American. He gave his 
first fruits and the best fruits of his life to his people and his 
country. He left no enemies here. We looked upon him with 
friendship, and everyone found in him a friend. lie was born 
,ii Perry, Ohio, March 2, [829. He died at his home in Dubuque, 
Iowa, on the 4th day of August, [908, in the eightieth year of 
his age. 

At that time the Monetary Commission of the United States 
were eii route to Europe, and several hundred miles distant from 
New York the wireless telegraph brought them the gloomy and 
regretted news of Mr. ALLISON'S death. 

His career as a public servant had been very long and very 
laborious. It was of an inestimable value to his Stale and to 
his country. The plain recital of his faculties and performances 
would comprise the most fitting and enduring monument of his 
great career. 

As for myself, I shall go but lightly into details, but they 
have been and will be better recited by others. 

I served, however, with Mr. ALLISON as a colleague on both 
the Appropriations and Finance committees. He was a master 
011 their business. 1 have had the opportunity of vears to 
observe his course in the Senate, and I have an abiding sense 
of his commendable character and of his great and well-nigh 
unexampled service. 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia 43 

He possessed a strong, ripe, well-trained, and apprehensive 
mind. His form was comely and manly and his countenance 
handsome and engaging. His face was illumined by kindly 
eves of brilliance and power. His appearance betokened the 
modest, dignified, and forceful gentleman, unobtrusive, but 
inspiring respect and repelling undue familiarity. A stranger 
might naturallv assume from looking at him what he equally 
was — a statesman. Well ordered in all his sayings and doings, 
he might have made a mistaken impression on those who knew 
him not, that he had more placidity of temper than of fire in 
action. 

The well-built and well-oiled engine makes the least noise, 
because of its well-fitted mechanism and the superiority of its 
workmanship, but it is the most precise and continuous in its 
operations. The fire that moves it scatters the fewest sparks 
and cinders if it be made of the best fuel. The sheen of marble 
and steel are not indications that it is soft and impressible. 
On the contrary, it is only the outward expression of strong 
fiber and power. It requires the most powerful instrumentality 
of art to hew the stone and to make and temper the steel that 
possess the finest polish. So in Allison - the repression of 
contentious words and ways and the observance at all times 
of the amenities of life in all things were only the outward 
demonstration of the great heart, the good sense, and firm 
will that controlled him. 

After his education at the Western Reserve College in Ohio, 
and after studying law and practicing his initial years in that 
State, he moved to Iowa in 1857, when a well-equipped young 
man 27 years of age. 

When the civil war came on he served on the governor's 
staff, but was erelong translated to Congress, where he found 
tin- field that befitted his equipment and the bent of his genius. 



44 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

For four terms he was a Representative; that is to say, in 
the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Con- 
gresses. He then was elected to the Senate for the term begin- 
ning March 4, 187;,, and was five times reelected, the last time 
for the term which, were he living, would expire on the 3d of 
March next. 

Thus it is indicated that for a period of over forty years 
Mr. Allison was identified with the most critical and yet the 
most achieving and progressive period of American history. 
There was no great measure of all that time in which he did 
not take an active part. 

Several times his name was favorably commended for the 
Presidency of the United Stales. No man of his time was bet- 
ter qualified by information or devotion to duty, by dignity 
of character, or by the line balance of mind and disposition to 
fill that great office in the spirit of the true American citizen. 

True, he was a partisan. The nature of our people and of 
the institutions they have established has made partisanship 
the standing rule. We are all partisans. Marshall as well as 
Adams or Jefferson, Taney as well as Jackson, and Chase as 
well as Lincoln were all partisans; hut when they gave decisions 
it was soon, if not instantly, recognized that they spoke the 
law as they found it, and nothing but the law. The transient 
assault on Taney, made in times of great commotion and per- 
turbation, left him unscathed as soon as he was understood. 
The tribute not long since paid to him by Mr. Justice Brewer 
marks both the recipient and the bestower of praise as men 
uplifted above all pettiness and all condescension that would 
lower the standard of rightfulness and law. A true-hearted 
partisan, who has the balance of conscience and justice, may 
be trusted, whether upon the bench or in executive oflice or in 
legislative council. 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia 45 

William B. Allison had such an equitable mind that he 
would have made a great chancellor had he been a judge, a 
great minister had he been called to the Cabinet, and in the 
executive chair none would have been surer to consider his 
country and all its people first — all other things second. 

Allison was a man of peace and a great peacemaker. He 
instinctively observed the wise admonition of Allen G. Thurman 
to "keep a civil tongue in his mouth." He avoided the sharp 
and bitter angles of speech as well as of practical affairs in 
life. It was axiomatic with the ancients that the middle way 
is the safe way. It is the wise way, the way that least tires 
the traveler, and the way that least breaks axles and harness 
and wheels. The most experienced and best lawyers have 
always settled their cases, when they could, out of court, not 
in it. It was laughingly said of a certain statesman that he 
was so prone to compromise that if a claimant demanded both 
the Capitol and Library, he would compound by saying, "well, 
take the Library and leave us the Capitol." Allison was not 
that kind or any other kind of a weakling. When he stood 
for a principle to which he was devoted, he was as firm as a 
rock and believed that God Almighty hates a quitter. 

Our Government is so vast and varied in its ramifications, 
its finances and its expenditures are upon so prodigious a 
scale, the increase of its population has been so unprecedented, 
its Representatives in Congress and its Senators and the details 
of their enormous work have been so multiplied, that conditions 
have forced comprehensive changes in its methods of adminis- 
tration. Government by committee has necessarily superseded 
in practical effect the government of earlier days, where de- 
bates were largely at will and any subject might be made one 
ul' prolonged discussion. 

Allison was a great administrator. As chairman of the Ap- 
propriations Committee, and as a member of the Finance Com- 



a6 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

mittee, he constantly displayed his great utility, his capacity 
to work, his patience in hearing, in studying, in analyzing and 
clarifying details. His kind regard for all men and all questions 
were unsurpassed by any man I have ever known. 

As a debater he wasted no time in his utterances, but was 
always ready and equal to any task that the contingencies of 
the floor of the Senate required. When he expounded a sub- 
ject and advocated a theory he left little to he said by those 
who concurred and nothing to he assailed, save that side which 
marks the line of fixed political demarcation. Of a fixed and 
steadfast purpose, he was never frivolous <>r tickle; hut always 
possessing the poise and the gentle arts of good nature, hi' 
pursued with an unbroken pace the things he aimed at with 
the serenity of the spirit undisturbed by diverting circum- 
stances. Like the unclouded day, the rays of his intellect and 
of his information went forth to the world around him in tem- 
perate life-giving beams. 

Moderation and patience were his masterful virtues. They 
are not the swiftest coursers in the chariot race, hut they are 
the surest footed, the strongest, and the most dependable in the 
vast majority of the affairs of nations and of men. Neither the 
individual nor the social body can find verifiable progress with 
out them. They wreck no trains; they cut down no trees to 
get at the fruit. They do not break banks nor burn candles at 
both ends; they join no "get-rich-quick" societies. They bury 
no armies in Russian snows, they bring on no revolutions, and 
they stir no schisms. They excite no hatred, but always allay 
it. They may not shine in the meteoric splendor that de- 
parts as it illumines, but they do the great and wholesome 
business of man's existence. They spread the ample board; 
they provide food and raiment; they store the fuel that makes 
summer bv the hearthstone of the winter time. Like the sun 



Address <>/ Mr. Daniel, o) Virginia 47 

again, vou may not see it move, but it is moving all the same, 
and when the day is clone it has done its work of vitality and 
cheer over the wide landscape. These be virtues, the signal 
virtues, moderation and patience, which are most of all things 
to be commended and cultivated in a great republic, for the 
republic, of all forms of government, is the most quickly affected 
by the transient gusts of public opinion. 

Mr. Bryce has said in his great work on our Commonwealth 
that "America is the country where everything turns out better 
than it ought to." We have broken all precedents in our 
marvelous career, but as land diminishes and population in- 
creases, as congested cities beckon the country boys and girls 
to their excitements and adventures, the infertile countrysides 
are the more and more deserted. Great problems of all sorts 
arise before us and spectral shapes give menace and admoni- 
tion. In such a period more men of the temperate mind and 
balance of judgment, like Allison, are needed. While he ad- 
hered strictly to party, his influences within the lines of his 
partv, and so spreading outward, were always exerted for concil- 
iatory and for constructive and practical ends, and its own ac- 
tion was restrained from yielding to the temptations of popular 
and attractive things untested. 

Our federative union is the greatest experimental station in 
affairs political that the world has ever seen or devised. His 
because the State is a separate experimental station to itself, 
and may at will try any one of the great body of suggested 
ideas which are generated in the active minds of a progressive 
people. Sometimes the experiment in a State is wonderfully 
successful, and then the new idea is seized and considered and 
adopted by other States and becomes a fixed and shining light 
for the Nation. Sometimes the idea is disappointing, and then 
it soon passes away into rubbish. Whether we improve our 



4.8 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

own splendid mechanism of government or not, America will 
remain in future what it has been in the past — the name of 
opportunity. 

1 have not spoken of political differences of opinion with Mr. 
Allison; it was needless. Without some such differences of 
opinion progress would stagnate and such reforms as are wise 
and just would become the death heads of lost opportunity. 
Hut in our differences we shall best make ourselves the soldiers 
of the common weal and best advance our country and all its 
people by adopting the moderate and patient philosophy for 
which Allison above all men was distinguished. Thus shall 
our country develop in wholesome peace. Thus will it ever be 
reads for the demands of righteous war, and thus may we ful- 
fill the ideals of our fathers and meet the expectations of those 
who succeed us upon the stage of action. In such wise, and in 
such wise alone, can we best serve America that her fair form — 

Shall rise and shine. 
Make bright our (lavs and light cmr dreams, 
Putting in shame with lips divine 

Tile falsehood of extreme-. 



Address of Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshire 49 



Address of Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshire 

Mr. President: A short time ago, in the house of a friend in 

New York, I picked up a little book and opened it at this passage : 

It is hard — 

Said the doctor sadly — 

but life holds many hard things for all of us. Perhaps if we lived rightly, 
if our faith were stronger, death would not rend our hearts as it does. It is 
the common lot, the universal leveler, and soon or late it comes u< us all. 
It remains to make our spiritual adjustment accord with the inevitable 
fact. * * * The discord and the broken string of the individual in- 
strument do not affect the whole except as false notes, but I think that 
Cod, knowing all things, must discern the symphony, glorious with mean- 
ing, through the discordant fragments that we play. 

Mr. President, at best life's journey is a short one, and it is 
well if, as the end approaches, we can look back over the way 
and know that we have not lived in vain — know that kind words 
have been spoken and generous deeds done, which have lightened 
the burdens that some weary soul has been carrying. Him of 
whom we speak to-day brightened many hearts by kindly words 
and generous deeds. 

Others will speak more particularly of the remarkable career 
of our late associate, the Senator from Iowa, while I shall con- 
tent myself with a few simple- words of appreciation. 

I served in this body with the late Senator from Iowa for 
seventeen years, being associated with him in the work of the 
Committee on Appropriations for a portion of that time, and 
hence had an opportunity to closely observe him in the arduous 
work that he performed. His service in the Senate was a long 
one, and it was as valuable and conspicuous as it was prolonged. 

78135— S. Doc. 766, 60-2 4 



so Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

In all the history of the Government no Commonwealth has 
been represented by a Senator who did more for his State and 
the Nation than Senator Allison' accomplished. His great ex- 
perience and wide knowledge of governmental matters enabled 
him to practically direct the legislation of this body. Courteous, 
patient, sagacious, and patriotic, he guided legislation with 
consummate tact and ability and impressed himself upon his 
associates as a man who could not be spared from its mem- 
bership. How well we all remember the occasions when a few 
sentences from his lips swept away heated controversies and 
settled important questions. His calm demeanor and guarded 
utterances, reenforced by his profound knowledge of legislative 
matters, left little room for successful disputation. He carried 
his points by the sheer weight of his wonderful intellectual 
equipment, gained by long service and'close study of public af- 
fairs. Other men were more eloquent, but no man was more 
sincere, logical, and convincing. In a quiet way he swept soph- 
istry aside, and blazed the path to wise and beneficent results. 
His loss to the Senate, as well as to his State and his country, 
can not be adequately put in words, and its full appreciation 
must be left to the contemplation of those who knew and loved 
him as we knew and loved him. 

As a public man Senator Allison was sui generis. He had 
no rivals as a legislator. His management of the great appro- 
priation bills excited the wonder and admiration of his col- 
leagues, as also did his capacit) for long-continued and arduous 
work Probably this body will never see his like again, and 
of him we may well say, with a change in the name, as Byron 
said of Sheridan : 

Long shall we seek his likeness — lupy in vain, 
And turn to all of him which may remain, 
Sighing tliat Nature form'd but one such man, 
And broke the die — in molding Allison. 



Address of Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshin 51 

But notwithstanding we felt that we could not spare him, lit- 
is gone, and the place he so long honored in the Senate will 
know him no more. We will remember his virtues — his kindly 
word, his cheery smile, his helpful advice, his gracious and sin- 
cere friendship — and, remembering all, it will be strange indeed 
if the memorv of this great and good man does not influence 
our lives and elevate and ennoble our acts. For myself, 1 feel 
to-day as I felt when the news of his death reached me in a 
little country town in Xew Hampshire, that a personal loss had 
come to me — that a good friend and a wise counselor had gone 
out of mv life. Allison is dead, and yet it must be that Allisi in 
lives 

I can nut say, and 1 will nut say. 

That he is dead. He is just away ' 

With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand 

He has wandered into an unknown land, 

And left us dreaming how very fair 

It needs must be, since he lingers there. 

And you — O! you, who the wildest yearn 

For the old-time step and the glad return — 

Think of him faring on, as dear 

In the love there as the love of here. 

* * * * 

Mild and gentle, as lie was brave, 
When the sweetest love of his life he gave 
To simple things; where the violets grew 
Pure as the eyes they were likened t" 
The touches of his hands have strayed 
As reverently as his lips have prayed ; 
When the little brown thrush that harshly chirred 
Was dear to him as the mocking bird : 
And he pitied as much as a man in p. mi 
A writhing honeybee wet with rain. 
Think of him still as the same 1 say. 
He is nut dead — he is just- awaj 



52 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 

Mr. President: Advancing years impose L heir penalties upon 
every man. In their silent action there is a terrible certainty 
and an unsparing equality of distribution, but among all their 
warnings, among all the milestones which they place to mark 
the passage of time, none is more mournful than the task of 
reading the letters and biographies of those whom we have 
known and loved, or the sad duty which compels us to utter in 
public our words of praise and affection for the friends, the 
companions, the long-trusted leaders who have gone. Vet all 
these trials must be faced as we look into the eyes of Fate or 
listen to its knocking at the door. All that we can do is to 
meet them seriously and solemnly, yet in the right spirit, with- 
out empty and helpless lamentations 

The death of Senator Allison has brought these familiar 
thoughts to my mind, old thoughts, indeed, but ever new. and 
recurring now with a painful frequency as I reflected what a 
long and affectionate friendship was ended, what a blank space 
was suddenly made in my daily life by his departure 

I recall with great vividness my first meeting with Senator 
Allison at dinner in 1874, at the house of Mr. Samuel Hooper, 
a distinguished Member of Congress representing one of the 
Boston districts. The party was a small one, consisting only 
of our host, his nephew, myself, Senator Conkling, and Senator 
Allison. I was a boy just out of college and Mr. Allison 
appeared to me a person of great age and dignity. As a matter 
of fact, he was onlv forty-five, which seems to me now quite 
voung, and he had but just begun that career in the Senate 



Address oj Mr. Lodge, oj Massachusetts 53 

which was destined to prove so long and so memorable. Mr. 
Hooper's nephew, a classmate and lifelong friend of mine, and 
1 sat by and listened to all that was said that evening with 
deep and silent interest. The talk was very good and well 
worth listening to. To those who remember the men it is need- 
less to say that Mr. Conkling took the unquestioned lead in the 
conversation, and that when he criticised, as he frequently did, 
he spared no one. 

Young men, without much thought of the pain or injustice 
which may be inflicted, enjoy sarcasm and satire and wit at 
the expense of others. Youth is not. as a rule, a tender-hearted 
period, and Mr. Conkling showed plenty of sport in discussing 
not only his enemies but those whom Cosimo dei Medici de- 
clared were more to be feared by every man — his friends. Mr. 
Allison himself did not escape. My remembrance of Mr. 
Conkling and of the character of his talk is very sharp and 
clear-cut. and that is all. My recollection of Senator Allison 
is equally distinct, but it brings with it a gentle memory of the 
kindness of a distinguished and much older man to a young 
fellow whom he never expected to see again, of a sense of humor 
as kindly as it was keen, of a good nature which took even Mr. 
Conkling's gibes with a quiet dignity and easy patience, very 
pleasant to witness and very pleasant still to recall. Perhaps 
it is not unprofitable, either, to remember these things, for I 
think that among the qualities manifested that evening, thirty- 
five years ago, a lesson in good manners, in self-restraint, and 
in personal dignity might be discovered without undue delving. 

I have spoken of this little incident, quite unimportanl 
except to myself, because the qualities which I then saw, as 1 
thought, in Mr. Allison were really among his most conspicu 
ous attributes. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve, but 
his gentleness, his humor, his innate kindliness wire as ap] 



S4 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

to the casual and humble stranger as to those who knew him 
best He did not cover them with austerity, solemnity, or 
pomposity and reserve them only for the benefit of the leading 
actors upon the great stage where his life was passed, but he 
gave them freely to all the world, and made the world thereby, 
so far as his influence went, a happier place to live in. 

After 1 came to Washington it was my good fortune to know 
Senator ALLISON better while 1 was still in the House, and for 
fifteen years I have seen him constantly and intimately every 
day of each session. The nearer view changed in no respect, 
although it enhanced, what my first brief glance of him had 
revealed. But years of a common service disclosed to me what 
I had only dimly perceived before, his qualities as a public man 
and as a statesman, for he was universally admitted to deserve 
the latter title long before the last hard condition which turns a 
successful politician into a statesman, as pointed out by Mr. 
Speaker Reed, had been fulfilled. It is of Mi ALLISON in 
this capacity that 1 desire to speak to-day. < ithers here will 
trace the stages of his career and recount his services better 
than 1. His life will be told by his biographers in the time to 
come with adequate materials and in the large historical pro- 
portions which it so will deserves. My purpose is a very 
modest one, merely to attempt to give my impression of Mr. 
ALLISON as a statesman and of the type of public man which he 
presented in his long, useful, and honorable service of more 
than forty years. That service was crowded with incessant 
work, for no more industrious, no more conscientious man ever 
lived. The hardest suffering of his last year was the sense that 
he could not do all the work which pertained to his high posi- 
tion as he had been wont to do it. 

file great measures to which, as the years passed by, his 
name was attached would be an imposing list; anil if we were 



Address oj Mr, Lodge, 0} Massachusetts 55 

to add to this those in which he had a large, shaping, and even 
controlling part, it would fill pages of our Record. His monu- 
ment as a lawmaker, a great function when properly fulfilled, 
is to be found in the statutes and the history of the United 
States during the last forty years. But his most valuable work, 
if we would look at it as a whole, as his personal contribution 
to the welfare of his fellow-beings, is not conspicuous in the 
printed pages of books of law or books of history, now thai he 
is dead, any more than it was in the mouths of men while he 
was living. To value him rightly we must understand the Sen- 
ate and its daily work. The brilliant oration, the violent dia- 
tribe, the coarse invective, the vulgar abuse are spread in 
large letters and in long columns before the public eye; and 
except in the case of a great speech, contributing to the set- 
tlement of a great question, they fade as quickly as the tints of 
the rainbow on the breaking wave and are rarely able to find 
in the days when the account is made up even the slighl 
remembrance of a historian's footnote. No mistake is com- 
moner than that which confuses notorietv with fame. Fame 
may be the last infirmity of noble minds, but it is built upon 
the rocks of deeds done, while notoriety is always fleeting and 
generally vulgar. Mr. Allison's fame rests securely not only 
upon the great historic measures in which he had a leading 
share, but upon his steady work done here day by day, quietly, 
diligently, thoroughly, without the glare of headlines, for the 
most part unobserved and largely unappreciated by the Amer- 
ican people, who profited so greatly by its results. The Senator 
from Maine [Mr. Hale] has a favorite phrase of description in 
regard to some of those who have served lure or who serve 
here now. When he would praise highly, Ik- says such a man 
is "a good Senator." This has nothing to do with character 
or disposition, or with virtue, public or private, but means that 



56 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

a Senator does the work of the Senate well — the work of carry- 
ing on the Government, of advancing good measures and 
arresting had ones, the obscure work, the essential work, in 
which there is much labor and little glory and which demands 
constant attendance and unflagging attention. Tried by this 
exacting test, who would hesitate to say that for many years 
Mr. ALWSON was our best Senator" 

He was a party leader, a wise adviser and framer of policies, 
but he was also, and above all, one of the men who carry on 
the Government. They are not many at any time and the} are 
absolutely essential at all times. In the midst of political strife, 
in the tumult which attends the rise and fall of parties. In 1M' 
the English phrase, "The King's Government must be carried 
on." Whatever storm may rage, however bitter and loud may 
be the strife of contending factions, the public debts must be 
paid, national credit maintained, the army and navy kept on a 
proper footing, tin- mails must be delivered, and the revenue 
collected. No matter what happens, some one must be at work 
"ohne hast, ohne rast " to see that these things are done in due- 
season. Macaulav has said that Attila did not conduct his 
campaigns on exchequer bills, but we do; and what is more im- 
portant, we maintain the orderly movement of our Government 
in that way from day to day. It is a heavy burden and the 
country owes much o those who bear it. This was Mr. Alli- 
son's task during more than the lifetime of a generation. Be- 
yond anyone in our time, perhaps beyond anyone in our history, 
did he bear this great responsibility, and he never failed in his 
duty. For thirty-six years a member of the Committee on Ap- 
propriations, for twenty-five years its chairman, he became a 
sort of permanent chancellor of the exchequer. In the long list 
of eminent men who have tilled that great office in England 
there is not one who has surpassed him in knowledge, in the 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts s; 

dexterity and skill with which he drafted laws and reconciled 
conflicting views, in financial ability or in the strength of ca 
pacity with which he gauged the sources of revenue and adjusted 
expenditures to income. No one ever applied to him the cheap 
title of "watchdog of the Treasury," whose glorv comes rnereh 
from barking so as to split the ears of the groundlings and 
whose niggard and unenlightened resistance to every expendi 
ture, no matter how meritorious, usually causes enormous and 
increased outlay in the end. Mr. Allison was too great as well 
as too experienced a man to think parsimony was statesman- 
ship, and not to know that a wise liberality was as a rule the 
truest economy of the public money. 

Very few persons, even here, realize what labor, what knowl- 
edge, what experience he brought tohis work. We saw a great 
bill reported, we watched him handle it with a tact and skill 
which 1 have never seen equaled, we noted that he was familiar 
with every item and could answer every question, and we were 
satisfied with the result and did not pause to consider what it 
all meant. To achieve this result implied a minute knowledge 
of every branch of the Government and every detail of expendi- 
ture which had cost days and nights of labor and years of ex- 
perience. Scrupulous honesty, of course, was his. but that 
would have gone but a short distance without the trained intel 
ligence, the unswerving diligence, the disciplined mind which 
controlled the disposition of the millions upon millions that 
passed unscathed through his strong, clean hands. Moreover, 
he was always here. The standing joke about his caution and 
his avoidance of unqualified statement, which no one enjoyed 
more than he, grew out of certain temperamental attributes 
But it is well to remember that, however guarded he was in 
speech, he never failed to vote, which is the real and final index 
of political courage and of constancy of opinion and com iction, 



58 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

He may have put clauses of limitation into what he said, but he 
never shrank from, never evaded, a vote. 

Presidents and cabinets, Speakers and House chairmen came 
and went, but he remained at his post until we regarded him in 
the field of finance and appropriation almost, as was said of 
Webster, like an institution of the country. Six times did the 
legislature of Iowa elect him to the Senate. Pride in the State. 
pride in him. and personal affection counted for much in their 
action; but I can not but think that they realized also their 
responsibility to the country which prized so highly the services 
of their Senator. It is the fashion, just now, to decry legisla 
tines, but we shall wait long before we find any form of elec- 
tion which will represent as truly the real will, not only of the 
people of a State, but of the people of all the States, as did the 
legislature of Iowa during those thirty-six years. It will be 
a sorry day for Government and people alike when we lose 
that permanence and continuity, that directing and guiding 
force, which such careers and such service as Mr. ALLISON'S 
have given to the Senate. It is such careers as his which have 
made the Senate what it has been in our history, and if, under 
pretense of making it more popular, we are subjected to schemes 
which open the door wide to those who would commit fraud 
and to those who would spend money without stint, we shall 
not onlv see the popular will distorted, travestied, and de- 
feated, but the country will be deprived of the long-continued 
services of such men as Mr. Allison, which have been and are 
of inestimable value to the United States. 

Where, then, shall we rank him? To put him out of or 
above the class to which he rightfully belongs would not be the 
part of love and affection, but of vain eulogy, which perishes 
with the breath which utters it. He did not stand in the class 
with Lincoln, savior of the state, greatest, as an English historian 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 59 

has said, of all the figures of the nineteenth century. He did 
not reach that lonely height. Nor was he one of the class of 
men like Bismarck and Cavour, builders of nations, relentless 
wielders of armies, masters of all the subtle arts of diplomacy. 
Mr. Allison belongs to that class of statesmen of which the 
history of the English-speaking race furnishes, happily, main 
examples. They are the men who carry on the Government 
and who have made possible the practical success of free repre- 
sentative institutions. Wise, farseeing, prudent, devoted to 
their country, and abounding in good sense, they command 1>\ 
their absolute honesty and capacity the entire confidence of 
senates and parliaments. Among the chief statesmen of this 
class Mr. Allison holds his high place. Such a verdict as this 
may at this moment sound cold, but it has one great merit, 
that of truth, and the more we consider it the more we shall 
understand what high praise it carries with it. 

We Americans take great pride in our country, and no people 
has better cause for pride. In no country is patriotism more 
intense. We never hesitate to give expression to our love ol 
countrv under all conditions, sometimes with a vehemence 
which tends to make others think that we doubt our own sin- 
cerity, and with a disregard of time and place which outsiders, 
at least, are prone to deem crude and tasteless. Vet, all hough 
it sounds like a paradox, we are at the same time curiously 
distrustful of ourselves and seem almost void of self-confidence 
in judging the work of Americans. We oscillate between tile- 
extremes of unintelligent praise, given merely because that 
which we praise is American, and trembling hesitation in award 
ing proper place to real achievement. The higher we rise in 
the scale of intelligence and education, the more timid we seem 
to become, and we look over our shoulders and criticize and e\ en 
sneer at American performance because, apparently, we feel 



60 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

that we may be laughed at by somebody or because we suspect 
that we are something apart from and beneath the standards 
of the civilized world. For no better reason than that we have 
at times praised foolishly and extravagantly we are shy of 
praising rightly and justly. We shrank away from Walt 
Whitman until men like Rossetti and Symonds and Stevenson 
and Swinburne had spoken, and then we only slowly acknowl- 
edged that the Long Island carpenter was a great poet ami on( 
who had become a real and original force in the splendid annals 
of English verse. As with the poet so with the painter and 
sculptor, the writer and the statesman. We yield easily to the 
provincial temptation to hail with exultation the heaven-born 
-mills who generally never justifies his title, and we doubt and 
hesitate and pause in giving due place to the work of a lite- 
time, deepfounded on all that is best in our inheritance, slowly 
and painfully built up by talents steadily applied and by sacrifice 
of self to a noble purpose. 

If Mr. ALLISON had done the work and held the place in 
England that he did and held here, his memoirs would appear 
in lit and statelv volumes like those which recount the life oi 
the late Lord Granville, whom Mr. Allison resembled in service 
and character, although the fields of their activity were. different. 
Had he been a great English statesman, as he was a great 
American statesman, his statue would have its place here in 
the Capitol, the scene of his labors, as at Westminster we find 
the statues of English prime ministers and parliamentary 
leaders, many of whom Mr. Allison surpassed in all that goes 
to make a statesman. I trust that this may vet be done, but I 
greatlv fear that we shall go on adding to the freaks in marble 
and to the effigies of the temporarily illustrious which now 
crowd against those of some of our really great men and only 
serve to disfigure one of the most beautiful rooms which 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 61 

modern architecture has given to the world. I sav all this of 

Mr. Allison, not in the beaten way of eulogy or tribute, but 
because I wished, by historical standards and, so far as possible, 
with the coolness of history, to vindicate the place of a man who 
was a great public servant, a statesman as eminent as he was 
modest, and to whom this country owes a large debt, not mereh 
for his lifelong labors, but for the example he set to us all and 
the dignity he gave to the Government of the United States. 

And yet, when everything has been said, strive as hard as we 
may to govern ourselves by the tests of history and to award 
to Mr. Allison the place which was rightfully his, and which 
all men should acknowledge, at the end it is the man of whom 
we think to-day and not the Senator. His death meant a 
personal loss to each of us. His abilities, his honesty, his 
unstinted devotion to the country, his fine character, his keen 
sense of humor, we do well to tell them over. He fully deserves 
it all. But what history or posterity can not feel or know is 
the one thing we feel most and know best. He inspired love 
and affection. He was beloved by all who knew- him, and to 
us here his death leaves a blank which can not be filled. Great 
powers were his, but the greatest of all his attributes was that 
kind, warm heart, that goodness to others which east a spell 
over everyone who came within his influence. 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up 

And sav to all the world, "This was a man.' 



62 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 

Mr. President: I have had no opportunity or, indeed, 
desire to undertake to prepare any studied or labored tribute 
to our dead colleague. It was only yesterday afternoon that 
I was invited by one of the Iowa Senators to participate as a 
speaker on this occasion. I had intended to offer a few brief 
sentence's of unstudied praise as a tribute to Senator Allison's 
memory anyway, and what I shall say will make up in sincerity 
what it lacks in polish or literary merit. 

I have had the honor to be a member of this body for four- 
teen years, and during eight of those years I have been a mem- 
ber of the Committee on Appropriations. ( If course previous to 
becoming a member of that committee I had observed the Sen- 
ator from Iowa in his everyday work here, and had learned to 
love and admire him for his many noble qualities; but in the 
more intimate relationship of the committee work I grew fa- 
miliar with the marvelous qualities of industry, patience, alert- 
ness, and capacitv which so markedly' characterized him, and 
I grew acquainted with other personal phases of his character 
which rarely or never were shown in the Senate. While he was 
gentle and patient always, and courteous as a habit, and. in 
fact, incapable of being otherwise than courteous and kindly, 
he had about him a humor, an appreciation of what we call a 
"joke," such as I have seen surpassed by few men. 

Those who have associated with him privately will recall the 
gleam of the eye, the arching of the brow, the stoop of the head, 
while he looked at one, as it were, over something, with which 
he would speak a sentence replete with wit and humor, and, 
while not laughing at his own exhibition of it, would seem to 
question von as to whether or not you had caught it. 



Address of Mr. Tillman, of South Carolina 63 

In our intercourse I had occasion, hundreds of times. to won 
der at his memory. The readiness with which he would refer 
to laws passed almost when I was a boy was almost marvelous. 
He would call on his clerk to bring something or he would make 
reference to some statute long since passed, quoting it almost 
verbatim, illustrating the familiarity with our legislation which 
his long service and retentive memory enabled him to exhibit. 

He was always more than kindly and punctiliously obsen 
ant of the courtesies due to a man of the minority party. I 
have associated with chairmen of committees, on which I was 
one of the minority, who were very different in this regard, who 
seemed to feel that because their party was in power and they 
themselves in a majority on the committee it was not worth 
while to pay attention to or consider objections or suggestions 
from those who were in the minority. 

It was never so with Mr. Allison. He would observe toward 
a minority member of the committee a greater courtesv and eon 
sideration than he frequently did to members of his own party. 
It was this uniform kindliness and desire to be friendly and 
obliging which made him so dear to every man in this Chamber, 
and I do not hesitate to speak it as my belief that he was as 
dear to the Democrats here as he was to the Republicans 

Mr. President, we have had in the last two years great losses 
in this body. The long catalogue of names, illustrious and other- 
wise, which the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Bacon] recited in 
his remarks, shows how rapidly the Senate changes. The Sen 
ator from Georgia and I came into the Senate together, and 
he mentioned the fact that there were only eleven men here of 
longer service than ourselves, and after the 4th of March there 
will be only nine, as two of those who are of longer service will 
no longer be with us after that date. Thus we see that in these 
fourteen years seventy-odd Senators have disappeared from our 
midst, many of them, a majority, I believe, into the grave, some 



64 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

have retired voluntarily, while others in the vicissitudes of 
polities have been left at home by their people. 

I want to call your memories for a brief while to four re- 
markable men who have died within the last eighteen months — 
Morgan, Pettus, Allison, Proctor — two from the North and two 
from the South land. They were all essentially types of the 
best that American civilization has produced. It is doubtful ii 
there ever existed a greater contrast in some respects than be- 
tween Senator Allisi in and Senator Proctor. One was as genial 
and as peaceful in his attributes as a June day; the other was 
like the granite mountains of his State — somewhat austere, 
quiet, undemonstrative, but as full of the milk of human kind- 
ness as any man I have met here, and withal possessing an 
inherent strength which commanded respect, while there was 
no effort at all on his part at anything like ostentation. 

I recall my surprise — for it was very shortly after my en- 
trance into this body — on hearing the speech which Senator 
Proctor made after his visit to Cuba on a personal inspection 
i )n his return to Washington he made a report as though he had 
been a military officer sent by the Oovernment to go there and 
come back and tell us what the trouble there. was about and to 
give his conclusions. There was nothing of bitterness in that 
recital and there was much of the judicial temperament, calm, 
clear, concise, and forceful, and the English was so choice that, 
knowing Senator Proctor as a man of affairs, a man who per- 
haps had not had as great advantages as others, I felt con- 
strained to go and tell him that he ought to be elected professor 
of belles-lettres in some university, because very few of those 
who pretend to teach English could approach him in such a 
production as that. 

I come now to two other great men whose deaths we lament, 
whom we all miss here. We all realize that the two Senators 
from Alabama had reached and crossed beyond the fourscore 



Address oj Mr. Tillman, 0} South Carolina 6.S 

mark, while the other two, Mr. Ai.i.in in and Mr. Proctor, were 

very near it. They have all fallen like ripened heads of golden 
grain. Senator Morgan had impressed himself upon this body 
as a man of the profoundest attainments in knowledge "I' go\ 
ernmental affairs and history, and was, in fact, considered by 
all as a kind of walking encyclopedia upon whom one could eall 
at any time for anything in connection with American histor) 
or jurisprudence or legislation and get the desired information. 

The last of the four men, Mr. Pettus, was in some respects the 
most remarkable of the group, not in brilliancy of intellect, 
though his mind was as clear and pellucid as an icicle, but in a 
sturdiness, a strength, a vigor, and a frankness and simplicity 
that endeared him to all of us almost from the dav of his en- 
trance here; and my purpose in one sense in recalling these four 
figures to your memories for a brief while is to direct attention 
to the most beautiful compliment or deserving tribute that I 
have ever heard on this floor from one Senator to another, living 
or dead, and in this instance it was from a Senator to one who 
was not then dead, but has since, like himself, "crossed over 
the river." 

It was in the debate on the increase of salaries bill, when 
Senator Pettus felt called on to speak of his colleague, who was 
then ill at home, and to remind the Senate of his long and ardu- 
ous labor and of the immense amount of work he had done here 
in the quarter of a century during which he had served the 
South and the people of America. And after reciting tin- fact 
that he was a great lawyer, as we all know, and what his prac- 
tice yielded him at the time when In- ceased to In- a practicing 
lawyer and came to the Senate as a public servant, he went (in 
to state that it was almost certain had Morgan remained at the 
practice of the law he would have been a very wealthy man by 
that time. And then, reciting the fact from his personal knowl- 
78135 — S. Doc. 766, 60-2 5 



66 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

edge, because they both lived in the sam< town, Selma, that his 
property was worth just about what it was when he came here, 
with a fervor of voice which rang through my soul like a fire 
bell in the night, he said: 

The people of Alabama are proud of him because he did not acquire 
great wealth here, as some men have don< 

That sentence ought to be graven on Morgan's tomb. 
Watching Mr. ALLISON as I did, seeing the method which he 
followed in handling the appropriation bills involving hundreds 
of millions, the patience with which he investigated every item 
that was under consideration or if a new item was proposed 
by some one, and remembering that after all these years of 
handling those billions and billions of dollars, with oppor- 
tunities to have had some of it stick to his hand, had he been 
venal, he died not rich, 1 wish to bear testimony, as far as my 
feeble voice can go, to the fact that if there were ever honest 
men in Congress William B. Allison was one of them, and Un- 
people of Iowa should be proud that he did not die rich. 

Mr. President, as I look around this chamber and remember 
the men with whom 1 have associated who are now dead and 
gone, and remember also that within the recent past I have 
been face to face with the dread Angel Azrael, have looked over 
the fence, as it were, and have seen people digging my own 
grave, I have had brought home to me with telling force the 
beauty of this little poem by Charles Lamb. There are only 
three or four st an/as. I have not taken the trouble to look it 
up. 1 read it forty years ago and I may not quote it with entire 
accuracy : 

Ghost like, I paced 'round the haunts of my childhood. 
Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, 
Seeking to find the old familiar faces. 

How some they have died, and some they have left me, 
And some are taken from me; all are departed 
All, all art gone, the old familiar faces. 



Address of Mr. Tillman, 0} South Carolina 67 

There are so many familiar faces that I can recall in my more 
or less brief sen-ice here that are gone that these thoughts come 
to me, and then I think, further, of that plaintive wail in The 
Lotus-Eaters, where Ulysses and his companions, who were 
searching for home, trying to find their way back to Greece, 
came to the island in the sea of which Homer speaks, and the 
words of Tennyson come up : 

Death is the end of life; ah, why 

Should life all labor be? 

Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast, 

And in a little while our lips are dumb. 

Let us alone. What is it that will last ? 

All things are taken from us, and become 

Portions and parcels of the dreadful Past. 

Let us alone. What pleasure can we have 

To war \\ ith evil 5 Is there any peace 

In ever climbing up the climbing wave ' 

All tilings have rest, and ripen toward the grave 

In silence; ripen, fall and cease: 

Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease. 

We all know, when we take the time to think, that death is 
inevitable, but we are happily constituted in being able to for- 
get it and pursue our paths here and discharge our labors and 
duties as best we may. 

All I can say in regard to the career of the dead Senator, who 
we here do honor to, is that none of us can hope to surpass 
him in length of service or in value of service to his countrv; 
and it ought to be the purpose and desire of each of us to 
emulate that great man's character, and as far as possible to 
imitate his virtues. 



68 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 

Mr. President: When William B. Allison went over to 
the "great majority" the country lost a statesman of large 
experience, high character, and acknowledged ability, and the 
Senate a most useful and helpful member. 

He recalls to all of us the eminent men of the past generations 
who made the Senate of the United States the greatest deliber- 
ative body in the world, and he will be entered on the roll of 
those who have most diligently and efficiently served the 
Republic. 

A native son of the great West, he was educated at a college 
which, l>v its name, brings back to mind the time when Con- 
necticut claimed as its own the region now embraced within the 
boundaries of l lie Slate of < >hio. In that State he studied and 
practiced law until the adventurous spirit which led to the set 
tlement and development of the Western Reserve impelled him 
to join those who formed the advance civilization on the conti- 
nent, ami at 28 years of age he took up his residence in Iowa, 
in which Stale he very soon became prominent, and which he 
served in one capacity or another up to the lime of his death. 

Only four years intervened between the time when he became 
a citizen of Iowa and the outbreak of the civil war, and when 
that great struggle was impending he was a member of the stall" 
of Iowa's governor and aided in organizing the volunteers who 
were to go to the front. 

Two years later he was called to represent the State in Con- 
gress, and since 1 863 he has been, with the exception of two 
years, a Member of one or the other branches of this great legis- 
lative body. 



Address oj Mr. Perkins, o) California 69 

In 1873 he was chosen to succeed United States Senator 
James Harlan, and for thirty-five years he has represented the 
great State of Iowa in the Senate of the United States, exceed- 
ing by eight years the next longest term of service. 

Forty-three years of his life were devoted to active work in 
national legislation, and from the very beginning that work was 
fruitful of good, and its benefits will extend far into the future. 

The first term of service of Mr. Allison in the Ilmisc of 
Representatives demonstrated in a most marked manner his 
peculiar qualifications to deal with the great financial questions 
which came before Congress, and he was appointed a member of 
the Ways and Means Committee and there served during those 
years when our finances were in a most critical condition. 

The experience he there acquired and the work he did during 
his subsequent service in the House on that important com- 
mittee gave him that profound and accurate knowledge which 
later made him the leading authority in Congress on questions 
of a financial character. 

The refunding of the public debt, the remission of the must 
burdensome internal taxes, and the readjustment of the tariff 
were some of the vital problems which he assisted in solving, to 
the lasting benefit of the United Stales. 

When he came to the Senate he was, in consequence of his 
large experience and wide know-ledge of such public business, 
assigned to the Appropriations Committee, of which he became 
chairman in 1881, retaining that distinguished post up to the 
time of his death, with the exception of a few years during 
which the Democrats controlled the Senate. 

He had hardly entered the Senate when he was called upon to 
participate in the most important legislative- service since the 
civil war — that which brought about the resumption of specie 
payments in 1875, making our depreciated currency as good as 



70 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

gold in all the markets of the world. For his work in the 
Senate caucus committee, which framed the resumption act, 
he was placed on the Finance Committee, of which he could 
have been chairman, but he preferred the chairmanship of the 
Appropriations Committee, in directing the labors of which he 
has been instrumental in effecting some of the most important 
legislation of his time. 

It was also during his earlier years in the Senate that his 
influence was felt in a most marked manner in preserving to the 
United .States the gold standard in the face of the violent and 
sustained attacks of the free-silver advocates. It was his 
amendment, preserving the gold standard while providing for a 
limited amount of silver coinage, which saved the battle for a 
sound basis for our national credit, and has been of inestimable 
beneht from that day to this. His action then and later was 
based on the conviction that the disuse of silver as a standard 
of value by the commercial nations of the world would bring ruin 
upon us should we adopt that metal as our own standard, un- 
less all other nations with whom we traded should likewise 
change their monetary basis. That fundamental idea influ- 
enced him in all of his subsequent efforts to place beyond the 
possibility of successful attack that standard of values which 
is recognized in all tin- countries of the globe. 

C.ieat. also, were his services in connection with the framing 
of the McKinley tariff and the amendment of the Mills tariff 
bill, for his experience in the House had made him an acknowl- 
edged expert in solving these complex and difficult problems 
which tariff legislation gives rise to. The act reforming the 
internal-revenue laws of the United Slates was also prepared 
by him, as was the law giving to the District of Columbia its 
present form of government, which has worked so successfully 
since [874. 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 71 

Among the later instances of his genius for legislation ma} 
be pointed out the recent law increasing the power of the 1 
state Commerce Commission. To that bill, as ii came from 
the House, hundreds of amendments were proposed, which, if 
adopted, would have swamped the measure and defeated the 
object aimed at. 

The danger was avoided by an agreement to adopt only the 
Allison amendments which accommodated the differences of all 
except the few holding the most radical ideas, and, as amended 
by him, in which amendments the administration concurred, the 
bill became a law. Such are some of the instances of Senator 
Allison's genius for legislation, particularly legislation that 
contributes to the well-being of our country for long years after 
its enactment. As a constructive statesman he had no superior 
among his contemporaries. 

The value to the United States of Senator Allison's services 
is very great indeed, for his influence has been felt in shaping the 
most important legislation of the past forty-five years. To 
that influence is due in a great measure the fact that practically 
no mistakes have been made, and that we now stand on the firm 
foundation of those laws which he had a very conspicuous pari 
in forming; and that these laws have proved to he the sure 
basis for our progress and prosperity is due to the fact that 
Senator Allison constantly strove to establish sound and coi 
rect principles of government, irrespective of policies, political 
affiliations, or political pressure. 

He rose far above considerations which weigh heavily with 
men of narrow minds and more selfish character, and considered 
solely the good of the entire country and the well-being of its 
entire people. Such was the spirit in which Abraham Lincoln 
so administered the law that his name will forevermon b< 
linked with that of Washington in the hearts of the American 



-2 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

people. It was this fine quality which has made the memory of 
William Mckinley dear to every patriotic American. 

That minute and sure distinction between statesmanship and 
mere political expediency which is the certain index of a mind 
raised far above the mud in which political self-seekers wallow 
was apparent in every act of William B. Allison's public life. 
His aim was not party advantage, but the good of the nation; 
not the success of political schemes to redound to his own ad- 
vantage in power or prestige, but the peace and well-being of all 
the people; not to secure the applause of the unthinking crowd, 
but to attain that greatest reward for public service — the con- 
sciousness that he has been faithful to the Constitution and to 
the best interests of the Republic. All who knew him here 
nized that such were the motives which actuated him in 
all he did, and it was this knowledge which compelled that 
respect and confidence which were felt for hnn as a leader; 
without such respect and confidence his great ability would not 
have served to raise him to the high position he attained. 
With the recognition of his absolute unselfishness, his leadership 
was gladly acknowledged and remained to the end unques- 
tioned. 

During these recent wars which mav be called the "era of 
villification," when there appear to have come to the surface in 
all ranks of life, from the very highest to the very lowest, in- 
dividuals whose sole desire seems to be to attack men in public 
and private life who have achieved what is commonly called 
"success;" when accusations of dishonesty and falsehood are 
made recklessly and thrown broadcast to the world; when men 
in high station have been subjected to more searching examina- 
tion and more unreasoning criticism than perhaps ever before 
in our history, Senator Allison stood high above the rushing 
stream of defamation and innuendo, no drops of whose dirty 
water soiled the spotless garments that he wore. 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 73 

Every Member of this body has had reason to appreciate the 
line character of Senator Allison and the high standard he 
placed before himself as that which should be lived up to by 
men in public life; and we can do no better than to make his 
character the standard for ourselves, and to strive to measure 
up as nearly to it as he did to the standard set for himself. 

Those of us who, as I have, came into more intimate relations 
with him through membership on the same committees, have 
had the opportunity for learning at close range all of his great, 
ennobling, and endearing qualities. My association with him 
for more than twelve years on the Committee on Appropriations 
has given me a chance to know how ardent was his patriotism, 
how conscientious was his performance of public duty, how 
great was his patience in investigating every question which 
came before the committee, and how carefully were his judg- 
ments formed. His courtesy and deference to every Member of 
the Senate, the willingness to hear and consider objections to 
his proposals, the kindness and consideration with which lie 
expressed differences of opinion, endeared him to each one of 
us and strengthened our regard for him and our confidence in 
his judgment. 

The longer we knew him the surer we were of his absolute 
unselfishness, and from time to time some fact would become 
known that like lightning flash would reveal the height on 
which he stood above the wild turmoil of political ambitions. 
He time and again declined a Cabinet position, believing that 
he could render more effective service to his State and country 
in the Senate. 

At one time. I am assured by a distinguished man who kimus 
whereof he speaks, he could have received the nomination for 
the Presidencv, which nomination would have been equivalent 
to an election, if he had been willing to make a concession which 



74 Manorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

in no way reflected on his honor, but which was simply not in 
consonance with his idea as to his public duty. Without hesita- 
tion he refused the great office, and that refusal was never 
regretted 

His ambition was to to serve his country according to his own 
high standard of duty. To make concessions for the sake of 
personal aggrandizement was to him failure in his life work, 
and he died, as he had lived, faithful to the people of the Repub- 
lic, maintaining to the last its high ideals and traditions, 
leaving a name that will hereafter always be found in the list of 
the ablest, the most useful, and the most honored of its citizens. 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 

Mr. President: When Senator Allison died, on the 4th of 
last August, he closed a legislative career which began in [863 
and extended over a period of nearly forty-five years, a careei 
the most notable and pregnant in all our legislative history. 
He entered the legislative arena during the great stress of the 
civil war, bore his share in the hard and sad task of reconstruc- 
tion, bravely aided in refunding and liquidating our great debt, 
strenuously participated in restoring our currency to a specie 
basis and, ultimately, to a single monetary standard, and was 
most active in promoting our industrial and economic progress 
and development by judicious legislation. When he entered 
the public service the population of a divided country was a 
little over 30,000,000; when he left us forever the population of 
a reunited country was nearly three times as large, and during 
this period our territorial possessions had been augmented I" 
the extent of more than 700,000 square miles, more than one- 
fourth of our entire territorial area. 

Since the constitutional birth of our nation, those yeai ol 
his public service were the most eventful and pregnant in all our 
historv, calling for the highest degree of legislative wisdom and 
constructive statesmanship. The vitality and integrity of our 
country was on trial, in one form or another, all the time. The 
menace of secession was followed by the menace of repudiation 
in various forms, and that by the menace of concentrated 
gant, and lawless capital. 

The conservation of our system of government in its purity 
and in its original design is a continuing task, requiring well 
equipped sentinels constantly on guard. And of these sentinels 



-;6 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

.Senator Allison was oik- of the most faithful and best equipped. 
As a legislator the greatest sphere of his usefulness was found 
in the committees dealing with our finances, our revenues, and 
our expenditures. On these great committees and in their work 
lie was a leader and exercised a dominating influence. In the 
parliamentary governments of the < >ld World, like that of Great 
Britain, such legislative tasks are simpler and much easier. 
There the ministry prepare, formulate, and bring in their sup- 
ply bills, and their budgets are all ready for consideration, re- 
quiring, in most instances, but a scanty revision and minor modi- 
fication. Under our system such bills are formulated, amended, 
and modified by the members of our great committees, thus en- 
tailing a most painstaking ami strenuous task on the legislators. 
While the Senate does not originate such bills, yet its power 
of revision and amendment is unlimited; and we who have for 
some time been .Members of this body know how carefully the 
Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Finance 
scrutinize, review, and oftentimes largely and most beneficially 
amend such bills. This is a work of the highest and utmost 
importance, and one that enters into the most vital functions 
of our Government and concerns the prosperity and well-being 
of all our people. The adjustment of revenues and expenditures, 
enough of the one and not too much of the other, is a most 
delicate and far-reaching task; one that, in the very nature of 
the case, can not be subrogated to any other, and requires the 
highest degree of legislative skill. And in this great work 
Senator ALLISON was unexcelled. While his legislative vision 
and care extended to all parts of the great field, yet in this 
special work he stood without a peer. Careful and painstaking, 
scrupulous and fair, no item was too big or too small for his 
consideration. He was faithful to the uttermost, and frowned 
upon all needless and wasteful expenditure. 



Address of Mr. Nelson, oj Minnesota 77 

While he was not an orator in the common acceptation of 
the term, yet he was a clear and most forceful debater, carrying 
conviction to all within the reach of his voice. And he had that 
rare gift, which some great orators lack, of being always in 
earnest and sincere. He never spoke for the mere sake of 
speech, or for the purpose of appearing in the public limelight. 
There was no hungry look in his eyes for the press gallery and 
no vearning to drum up a crowd in the galleries. He rarely, if 
ever, gave notice of a speech. He was, in every respect, the 
antipode of those legislators who limit their task to the delivery 
of an oration or two during the session, and who seem oblivi- 
ous to all else and hardly ever put in an appearance in their 
committees. 

A legislative bodv composed of such members would, at the 
end of a session, no doubt be possessed of a large volume of 
orations, but a rather scant and imperfect volume of statutes. 
They are not, as a rule, the men who formulate and pass legis- 
lation. They are the mere bric-a-brac of the legislative cham- 
ber — ornamental and line to behold, but of little practical use. 
It is the men of the other type — of which Senator Ai.lisi in is 1 In- 
best and foremost example — who prepare, formulate, and pass 
the essential and requisite legislation of the country. Such men 
prepare bills, meet with the committees to carefully consider, 
revise, and correct the same, and attend to their passage 
when reported. Men of this type are the really useful men of a 
legislative body — the men who bring about results, and who are 
not the mere coiners of fine phrases. 

A good legislator has a double duty entailed upon him. He 
must not only aim to promote the passage of good and whole 
some bills, but it is also his duty to prevent the passage of bad 
and unwholesome legislation. 

We all know from experience that there are. at times, meas- 
ures pending that would be detrimental to the welfare of the 



;S Memo) in/ Addresses: William B. Allison 

people, and in such cases we never ought to hesitate to put a 
veto upon them. Senator Allison, while he was always ready 
to promote the passage of wise, remedial legislation, never hesi- 
tated to Oppose and defeat measures which he deemed unwise 
and unsafe. He was always alert, and no bill of any importance 
on the calendar ever escaped his notice and attention. The 
range of legislation is so vast and extensive that most legislators 
can do little more than study and acquaint themselves with 
measures coming from the committees of which they are mem- 
bers. As to other measures, they have to rely, to a great extent, 
for information and guidance, upon the members of the com- 
mittees from whence such bills come. Senator Allison was an 
exception to this rule, lb- was not only thoroughly conversant 
with measures coming from the committees of which he was a 
member, but he seemed to lie well acquainted with every bill on 
the calendar. He was always on legislative guard and picket 
duty. He was always ready to hail every pending bill and to 
ask: "Who goes there?"' If tin- proper countersign was not 
given, the measure found no favor. 

By most men he was, no doubt, classed as a conservative; 
but his conservatism was not of the kind that was hostile to 
necessary and true reform. It was rather of the kind that 
reformed what was crude and ripened what was unripe in the 
field of legislation. His conservatism was of the kind that 
toned erratic and visionary radicalism to a sane and practical 
level, (beat reforms often appear, in the first instance, in a 
crude and indigestible embryo, but they furnish the inspiration 
to the calm, prudent, and wise statesman, from which he 
evolves, in practical and effective shape, a genuine and sub- 
stantial measure of reform. The rabid radical may furnish the 
crude ore and the combustion, but the calm and wise statesman 
furnishes the flux that brings forth the true metal. Senator 



Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 79 

Allison- was a member and leader of this class of statesmen; 
and how valuable and intensely useful such nun are. 

Legislative bodies, like individuals, are sometimes intensely 
emotional and apt to be carried away from the true course by 
excessive feeling. Senator Allison was less given to the emo- 
tional and erratic than most men, and hence he was always the 
safest and best of leaders. He had the happy faculty of calmly 
listening to and weighing all arguments, pro and con, and then, 
with deliberation, reaching a conclusion that was, as a rule, 
sound and the only proper course to pursue. No safer or more 
vigilant master than he ever trod the bridge of the legislative 
craft. When he stood there the true course was always taken, 
and all rocks, shoals, and quicksands wen- avoided. 

He was possessed of another rare quality accorded to but few. 
He could bring about results, in the face of contention and 
opposition, with less friction and less heartache than is given to 
most men. And this came from his equipoise, his patience, his 
calmness and serenity, and from his careful consideration of the 
feelings and impulses of his associate--. 

The army recruit, if he enters a raw battalion as crude and as 
little trained as himself, makes but slow progress in becoming a 
real soldier; but if he enters a battalion of trained and veteran 
officers and men, he speedily becomes a trained and reliable 
soldier, especially under the guidance and instruction of trained 
and experienced officers. What is true of the army recruit is 
true even to a greater degree of the legislative recruit. The 
legislative nestors, rather than the rules, train and make effec- 
tive, by precept and example, the recruit who enters this 
Chamber. And when these legislative veterans are possessed >■!" 
warm hearts, kindly natures, and helpful dispositions, as was 
Senator Allison in a high degree, what a blessing they prove to 
the new member. He encounters no chilly frost from such a 



No Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

veteran, and under his auspices he partakes of the legislative 
sunshine, parts with the feeling of isolation which is apt, in the 
first instance, to possess him, and feels that he, too, is an im- 
portant factor in the curriculum of legislation, and, as a conse 
quence, he soon becomes a useful member. 

Senator Au.isox was the best and most benignant of drill 
sergeants for the new member. I remember, with gratitude, the 
kindly manner in which he received me when I first entered the 
Senate and how helpful he was to me on many occasions; and it 
was all so natural and so unaffected — a very part of his nature 
and make-up. As he was to me, so he was to all new members. 
Like all great and good men, he was neither vain nor boastful, 
nor given to the pursuit of mere glory. He wrought from a 
scum- of duty and with an eye singly to the welfare of our coun- 
try and not from a sense of glory, 

He was, quietly and without ostentation, brave, fearless, and 
energetic in the performance of his great duties. As a states- 
man, his grasp and vision was wise, comprehensive, and safe. 
As a legislator, he was unexcelled in mental and moral equip- 
ment, in strenuous and incessant activity, and in accomplishing 
lasting and beneficent results. His death has left a vacuum in 
this body that is hard to fill. His most lasting monument will 
be found in the annals of Congress. < >f all the great men who 
have served in the Congress of the United States, he was by all 
odds the most useful. Others there may be who shine with a 
brighter though more lliekering luster, but no one with a light 
so clear, so invigorating, so strength producing, so continuing 
as Senator Ai,i.iso.\ He remains as a guiding beacon for legis 
lators for all time to come. 



Address of Mr. Kean, of New Jersey 



Address of Mr. Kean, of New Jersey 

Mr. President: Other Senators have portrayed the life and 
matchless services that Senator Allison performed during his 
long service in this body and in the other House; a service be- 
ginning March 4, 1863, in the administration of Lincoln, and 
extending to August 4, 1908. He passed through the eventful 
scenes of the civil war and those growing out of it, and was of 
unequaled service to his country. To him we owe many of the 
most valued acts of legislation that have been passed during 
his long term of public life, but 1 desire to say only a word to 
pay a tribute of friendship to his memoi 5 

My personal acquaintance with Senator Allison covered a 
long period of vears, for 1 had the pleasure of knowing him 
for many vears before I came to the Senate, and the almost 
dailv association with him here makes me feel his loss most 
grievously. 

In looking back over the last few years I find it hard to miss 
so many valued friends distinguished in public life. 1 lamia, 
Sewell, Piatt, Morgan, and many others; and now the senior 
Senator, to whom we all looked up with respect and admira- 
tion, has gone. 

How often in the future we shall miss his genial personality, 
which made him welcome everywhere; his wise counsel; his 
calm judgment; his wonderfully keen intellectual grasp. The 
Senate in which he served so long and so well mourns him, too. 

Time goes, you say J Ah, no! 
Alas, time stays; we go. 

78135 — S. Doc. 766,60-2 6 



Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Depew, of New York 

Mr. President: We raise the curtain today upon the most 
momentous events in the history of the Republic. The life of 
our Nation can be broadly divided into three eras— its creation, 
its preservation, and its development. The two last are vividly 
recalled by the career of Senator William B. Allison. He 
entered Congress in 1862 and died a Senator in 1908. Never 
during recorded tune has so much been done for liberty, hu- 
manit v. and progress as is crowded into this period. The whole 
world is its debtor, but the United States is our retrospect at 
this hour. 

We are here, in the assembly honored by his membership and 
the Hall which witnessed his activities, to pay tribute to the 
memory of one of the" most influential statesmen of these won- 
derful years. He took his seat in the House of Representatives 
when the future seemed darkest. A solid South and divided 
North, disaster to the Union cause in the field and threatened 
intervention by Europe, our credit seriously impaired and wide- 
spread discontent, created a situation full of peril for the preser- 
vation of the Union. The continent trembled under the tread 
of armies greater in number than any before marshaled in mod- 
ern times, and the shock of battles between brothers, each willing 
to die for his idea, had desolated every home in the land. Lin- 
coln voiced tlie first and greatest necessity— to save the Union — 
in these memorable words 

1 would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the 
Constitution. If there lie those who would not save the Union unless they 
could at the same lime save slavery, 1 do not agree with them. If there 
be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same 



Address of Mi. Depew, 0} New York 83 

time destroy slavery, 1 do not agree with them. My paramount object in 
this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy 
slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would 
do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 1 would do it ; and if 
I could save it by freeing same and leaving others alone, I would also do 
that. 

He stood like a rock against abolitionists and radicals who 
would have him try to free the slaves at a time when public 
sentiment would not have sustained him and the loss of Union 
supporters would have been fatal, but when all saw it was nec- 
essary to save the Union he issued the emancipation proclama- 
tion. 

The success of the national cause in the civil war placed the 
Union upon firmer foundation, to be made secure I'm all time 
by the reconstruction of the States and the acceptance by those 
in rebellion of their equal enjoyment of American citizenship 
and unity in loyalty for the old flag. Our Government was 
then the least in power and consideration among nations. Hut 
it advanced by leaps and bounds until at the peace of Ports- 
mouth between Russia and Japan, brought about by President 
Roosevelt, we took front rank and won the right and recogni 
tion of voice and vote in all matters affecting the welfare of the 
world. 

People prosper and nations advance according to the wisdom 
of the policies and measures which govern them. The waste of 
war must be supplied by credit and money. The countrj r< 
quired revenue bills to enlarge its income; the development ol 
its resources to furnish the basis for increased taxation, and a 
currency system in harmony with great industrial nations, h 
was in these fields that Senator Allison did most wise, b 
cent, and far-reaching work. Happily his Stair of Iowa, appn 
ciating his value to the country, kept him continuously in the 
Senate. The record and rewards of his career were due to 
neither luck nor chance. He won and held place and increa: tng 



84 Memorial Addresses: William B.Allison 

power by ceaseless industry, rare judgment , tact, which amounted 
to genius, and the graces which command loyalty and love. In 
the House he was on the Committee on Ways and Means, and in 
the Senate for twenty-six years a member of the Committee on 
Finance, and for thirty years on the Committee on Appropria- 
tions, and for twenty-five years its chairman. In these positions 
he had always before him problems of revenue and expenditures 
of the Government, upon which rest its stability, credit, and 
prosperity. They appealed to him because of natural gifts for 
these questions, and by study and experience he acquired such 
masterv over them that he became an acknowledged authority 
and accepted leader. 

He believed that industrial independence and internal devel- 
opment, increase in national wealth, and a higher standard of 
living for labor than ever known, could be had only by a pro- 
tective tariff. He was the clearest and soundest of the many 
able men who have contributed to the legislation or literature 
of this question. The Morrill bill, enacted in 1861. had per- 
formed invaluable service in replenishing the Treasury during 
the war and stimulating production and manufactures after. 
But the marvelous growth of our industries in both volume and 
variety called for a new adaptation to present needs While 
McKinlev was the unrivaled expounder and advocate of the 
merits of the measure which bore his name, it was the ripe 
learning and constructive genius of Allison which framed and 
perfected tile law. He pointed out the weakness which was 
afterwards developed in the Wilson bill, and his report warned 
Congress ami the country of the disastrous results which fol- 
lowed its enactment. The universal recognition of his talents 
for initiative and upbuilding made him a member of the sub- 
committee which perfected the Dingle)' bill, which has been in 
force since 1897, and to him was assigned the charge of its 



Address of Mr. Depew, of New York 85 

passage in the Senate. In this brief review is seen the mastei 
mind and skilled hand in legislation for the tariff during the 
thirty-five years it was on trial. He saw his policy at times 
erippled, and once nearly destroyed; but with faith which never 
wavered and courage which never faltered he plead with the 
people-and labored with their representatives until the fruit inn 
of his opinions and experience had ripened into law. IK- lived 
to witness for ten years the most extraordinary progress and 
prosperitv ever known in any land — the result, as he believed, 
of the triumph of his principles. 

But the Senator's activities were in ever}' branch of revenue 
legislation. He prepared in 1868 the internal-revenue law 
which with few modifications is still in force and with the least 
possible burden upon the people yields large returns to the 
Treasury. 

Alexander Hamilton was the greatest of constructive stairs 
men. With little of precedent for guidance, he formed out of 
chaos a model system of constitutional government and devised 
the details for its administration. He was the father of pro 
tective principles, and his report on that subject has been tin 
inspiration of all subsequent discussion and legislation. His 
methods and rules for the management of our customs re- 
mained unchanged for a century. Primitive conditions in tin- 
importation of foreign goods had grown and expanded until 
our commerce had so far outgrown the regulations which had 
controlled it for a hundred years that modifications adapted 
to modern situations were necessary. The work had been 
undertaken many times and failed, and was finally placed in 
the hands of Senator Allison. After two years of patient 
effort he succeeded in enacting a law wholly prepared by him- 
self which, without change, has been the guide of our customs 
revenue service from 1890 until to-day. 



86 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Senator Ai.us< in was a disciple of Hamilton. He revered his 
memory and was a profound student of his works. At a time 
when the people were wildly following the ignis fatuus of vision- 
ary finance, Allison kept his faith in sound economic princi- 
ples. He early saw that material development and progress 
were temporary and delusive unless based upon a stable and 
unfluctuating standard of value We came out of the civil war 
with our currency upon foundations as insecure as the earth- 
quake soil of Messina, and feverish speculation followed by 
disastrous panics was our perpetual peril. A loyal sentiment 
that the irredeemable greenback had saved the Union nurtured 
faith in fiat money and the virtues of the paper mill in main- 
taining values This and the silver heresy threatened political 
oblivion to all who opposed them. The Senator's fight for sound 
money illustrated the practical ability of his statesmanship. He 
could bow to t lie- storm and not be bent. He saw no merit in so 
attempting to stem the tide as to be swept into outer darkness 
and lost to sight and memory. He preferred to go with and 
guide it — the most difficult of tasks. It required from 1S65 to 
[875 before the people could be educated to belief in a specie 
basis. That decade was as full of peril to our industries as the 
civil war had been to our nationality. The resumption act was 
the work of John Sherman, but his ablest and most efficient 
associate was Senator ALLISON. 

That law made our depreciated currency as good as gold in 
theory, but not in fact. The enormous output of silver alarmed 
tlie mining industry because the supply was exceeding the de- 
mand. Besides the selfish interests of the mine owners, some of 
the best minds in the country became advocates of the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver. The farmer was persuaded it would 
double the price of his products and pay off his mortgages; the 
debtor that it would reduce the amount of his loans, the work- 



Address of Mr. Depew, «} New York 87 

man that it would double his wages, and by the mysterious 
alchemy of a government stamp, its purchasing power would 
not diminish with its falling price. Both Houses of Congress 
were captured by its fallacies and popularity. Popular passions 
had not run so high since the civil war. Wise and prudent men 
saw that the success of the scheme would drive out gold, put 
the country on a silver basis, and after a wild carnival end in 
bankruptcy. Senator Allison saved the situation by securing 
the assent of a majority for a limited coinage of silver, boughl 
by and belonging to the Government. The working of this com- 
promise demonstrated the folly of a double standard anil 
brought the people to see that except the opinion of the world 
could be changed we must come to gold. In hastening that 
event our friend performed invaluable and lasting service. The 
successful legislator must adjust the bill he proposes or has in 
charge to the diverse views of his colleagues without impairing 
its essential object. He yields, harmonizes, and conciliates, but 
gets in the main what he wants at the time or gains a step foi 
further advance when the majority are brought to his view. 

Senator Allison was past master of that art. He knew tin- 
Senate. Its capricious moods were his opportunity. His pa- 
tience was never exhausted, the serenity of his temper never 
ruffled. He could grant to an adversary an amendment with 
such grace and deference to superior judgment that tin flattered 
enemy accepted a few suggestions from the master as "a tribute 
to his talents. The post-mortem revealed his mistake. 

As in the gold standard, so whenever a principle was involved, 
the Senator's mind was clear from the beginning; but it re- 
quired, step by step, twenty years before the idea captured the 
country. The strongest criticism of his career was his willing- 
ness to compromise; but the Constitution of the United States 
was a compromise between the large and smaller States. The 



88 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Missouri Compromise of Henry Clay in 1820 was the salvation 
of the Union — secession then would have succeeded; but forty 
years devoted to instilling into youth love for the Nation and 
the flag, and the growth in population and resources ol the free 
States, welded the Union beyond the possibility of disruption. 

The country reunited in faith and loyalty, the industrial and 
financial systems which had commanded his unequaled talents 
for a third of a century triumphantly established and working 
out the beneficent results of prosperity, production, and happi 
ness upon which he had based faith and prophecy, the old 
statesman might have been content. 

Nations, like individuals, "pass this way but once." ('.olden 
opportunities at the milestones are lost or won. The triumphs 
of one generation make trouble for the next. 1'rogress and de- 
velopment create new issues and statesmen confront fresh prob- 
lems with every advance. Railroad mileage had increased with 
the growth of population ami extension of settlements. These 
lines are the arteries of commerce and had been consolidated into 
great systems. Evils existed in some of them which angered 
the people against them all. Government ownership or govern- 
ment control were leading issues. The President and his ad- 
visers prepared a large scheme of government control. It was 
threatened, on the one hand, by conservative forces which fight 
all change in existing conditions, and radical reformers win. 
would put on the measure drastic amendments so far-reaching 
and confiscatorv as to involve years of litigation and invite an 
adverse decision from the Supreme Court. The veteran victor 
of a hundred legislative battlefields was called into counsel. 
The suggestions of Senator Au.ismx perfected and passed the 
rate bill. It has stood the test of the courts. It has largely elim- 
inated the evils of railway management, and the people and 
investors recognize its wisdom. 



Address of Mr. Depew, of New York 89 

Senator Allison was never spectacular. He was modesl and 
retiring to a degree. Many of his colleagues filled large space 
with their speeches in the Congressional Record, while his 
monument was in the statute books. Because of the radicalism 
of their proposals, or their eloquence in debate, or their manu- 
facture of epigrams, others had headlines and columns in the 
press, while this tireless and unheralded architect of the public 
welfare was standing guard over the treasury or making laws 
which marked epochs in our history. 

He rarely missed a vote. When the bell rang for a roll call, 
coming from his constant labor in the room of the Committee 
on Appropriations, he was among the first to enter the Senate. 
His name was next to the top of the list. He never waited to 
find out how the question was going, but answered promptly, 
and that answer often decided the fate of the measure. He had 
the courage of his convictions and not of a majority behind him. 

He represented an agricultural State whose people often 
differed with him on economic and financial questions. But 
a singularlv broad-minded and intelligent constituency recog- 
nized his honesty, character, and greatness, and loyally returned 
him again and again to the seat in which he shed such luster 
upon Iowa. His closing hours were passed in the supreme 
happiness that after thirty live years of continuous service in 
the Senate and after passing the limit of fourscore the people 
had commissioned him for another term 

If, as I believe, those who meet in the activities of this life 
are reunited hereafter, it was a wonderful band of immortals 
who greeted Allison. President Lincoln had consulted him "ii 
measures for raising money to carry on the war; Johnson on 
constitutional amendments, civil rights, and general amnesty; 
Grant on the reconstruction of the States, finance, and 
ernment for the District of Columbia, still working satisfactorily 



go Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

and wholly devised by Allison; Hayes on the resumption of 
specie payments; Arthur on the policy of a tariff commission, 
Harrison on the McKinley tariff legislation and closer relations 
between the republics of the Western Hemisphere by a Pan- 
American Congress; Cleveland on the repeal of the purchase 
clause of the .Sherman silver law, and McKinley on tariff, cur- 
rency, the gold standard, and grave questions arising out of 
the acquisition and government of Porto Rico and the Philip- 
pines, all of them era-making measures. Three of these Presi- 
dents had urgently invited him to join their Cabinets, and twice 
the Presidency had been almost within his grasp. When he 
first obtained the floor in Congress, he addressed Speaker Schuy- 
ler Colfax, and when lie spoke last, forty-five years afterwards, 
Vice President Fairbanks in the chair recognized the Senator 
from Iowa. Seward, Chase, and Stanton, John Sherman 
[anus G. Blaine, and Thaddeus Stevens were his associates and 
intimates. When the future historian writes the story of this 
remarkable period and portrays the actors in that great national 
drama who contributed to its distinction, he will place among 
the few in the front rank the name of William P. Allison. 



Address of Mr. Beveridge, of Indiana 91 



Address of Mr. Beveridge, of Indiana 

Mr. President: Fullness of years, great work well done, wealth 
of honors, the respect of a Nation — all these were Senator 
Allison's when that kindly angel men call "Death" folded 
him in the arms of rest and bore him to the Father and to 
recompense. 

Older friends have spoken of his labors fur the Republic; I 
shall not go over that again. In the country's written laws and 
accomplished purposes his wisdom lives. Sound and farseeing 
counsel is as real a power as fleets afloat or armies in the field. 
It is more — it is the mind that guides all the material forces of 
the world. Sure judgment was the strength and worth of this 
great public man. 

More than most, he knew the value of patience. Panting 
eagerness nor stolid "dodessness" did not disturb his calm. He 
had forbearance alike for those who would drive the ship too 
fast for safety and for those who would put out the tires beneath 
her boilers. He knew that both were partly right and both 
were partly wrong; and he saw that from the conflict a steady 
force would come that, uniting the wisdom in both views, would 
bring the vessel safe to port. And so his was the statesmanship 
of the moderate, and therefore the statesmanship of the effective. 

I never saw Senator Ai.lisi in a single time that I did not 
think of those great words of Kmerson: 

Teach me thy mood, O patient stars 

That climb each night the ancient skv. 
And leave on Space no trace. 110 scars. 

No sign of age, no fear to die. 



Q2 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Sitting at the feet of this Gamaliel of the .Senate one felt that 
from his earliest youth he had made these immortal lines his 
nightlv prayer and that the responding heavens had answered 
it. For he was never irritated. He stood on heights from 
which lie could see all opinions and behold the Supreme Intelli- 
gence fitting them together. It was this broad vision that 
made him so valuable as an agent of that Higher Power which 
in the end marshals all forces for the final general good of man. 

With our narrower outlook and heated with zeal for our smaller 
views, manv of us feel that unless these views, and these alone, 
prevail the country is lost ; and this is well, for without the fire 
(>!' faith in our own thought no headway is made. And yet, 
when all is done, we find what we thought to be different and 
hostile plans have, by some mysterious power, been woven to 
gether in harmonious design. 

And so we conic to know that hospitality to ideas is the largest 
wisdom. At our intellectual firesides an idea always should be 
welcome; a fact always should be an honored guest. No mattei 
whence thought or knowledge come, no matter in what garb 
thev are clothed, bid them enter and turn them not away, for 
we may be entertaining angels unawares. Crabbed prejudice is 
the enemy of progress and truth; kindly patience is the friend of 
both. And so the kindly and patient man is he whom both prog- 
ress and truth befriend. And such was Senator Allison. 

Tell me 

Said the ancient ruler to His wise men — 

tell me one single thing that is true forever. Give me hut one sentence 
that time will not prove false. 

And the wise men answered: 

And this, too. shall pass away. 

At first it seems that this is so. Men go and are forgotten, 
no matter how great they are ; governments decay, races perish — 



Address of Mr. Beveridge, of Indiana 93 

all seem to pass away. But they do not pass, in very truth. The 
noblest thought in all this universe is that each man and woman . 
humble or high placed, pours his or her life into those supreme 
plans which live forever. And so. with the smv knowledge that 
whether our work be small or, like Senator Allison's, be -real . 
it still is more lasting than the stars. Let us go forward witli 
humility that we can do so little, but with pride and thankful- 
ness that we have been chosen to do our small part as servants 
of the Master Workman. 

With such belief and wisdom our friend and leader finished 
his tasks, and at the end kindly patience and forbearing toler- 
ance were his companions still. From earthly vision all of us 
are going, and quickly ; we know not which one of us is soonest 
to be called. 

•'Spin, spin, Clotho spin' I.achcsis, twist! and Atropos, 
sever" -only fate can tell who shall be next. But when we go, 
may each of us go as went Senator Allison, our work well done 
and manfully, leaving behind no hate; our finished lives like his, 
a blessing and an example; and having his faith that whatever 

befalls still- 
God's in His heaven: 
All's right with the world. 



94 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Burkett, of Nebraska 

Mr. President: In response to the invitation of Senator 
Dolliver, who has spoken so eloquently and feelingly, and in 
obedience to the promptings of my own heart, I wish to offer a 
few words in testimony of my appreciation of the life and char- 
acter (if Senator Allison. I can not add to the story of his 
life, for it has been told by those who have been in closer touch 
with it. I can not extol more fittingly his virtues and achieve- 
ments than has been done by those who have sat side by side 
with him for many years in these chambers of legislation and 
who have borne with him the burdens, endured with him the 
criticism, and shared with him the approval of the great Ameri- 
can people, 

Ordinarily the disparity of our ages and the comparative 
briefness of our association in public life would dictate that I 
should respect his memory in silence while others spoke. But, 
Mr. President , there were ties that bound him to me in life, and 
those memories impel me to speak a word of love and apprecia- 
tion now. I can not remember a time when his name was not 
familiar to me, nor a moment when his life was not an inspira- 
tion to me. The State that honored him so long was my birth- 
place, among the people that loved him so well are the friends 
and acquaintances of my youth, and in the soil of the Common- 
wealth where we buried him rest the remains of my loved ones 
that have gone, beyond. And to-day, Mr. President, then are 
still in that State those near and dear to me who would have 
me speak for them, if not for myself, of half a century of asso- 
ciation and affection almost filial. And, Mr. President, I may 
also very appropriately remind Senators that Senator ALLISON 



Address of Mr. Burkett, 0} Nebraska 95 

was especially near and dear to many of the citizens of niv own 
State. Nebraska has drawn from every State in the Union and 
from every country in the world to people her prairies, but 
owing to her proximity, as well as the similarity of physical 
conditions, Iowa has furnished an unusually large quota of our 
population. When the great army of pioneers from that State 
crossed the Missouri River they brought with them a pride in 
Senator Allison, whose career was just beginning, and which 
they have followed affectionately for forty years. His friend- 
ship is among the fond memories of many of them, and his life 
has been an inspiration to many more who were not fortunate in 
a personal acquaintance. 

And as I have listened to these eulogies to-day, Mr. Presi- 
dent, my mind has traveled back to the earlier days of my own 
life, for I have heard from the lips of his distinguished col- 
leagues in this great Chamber here the same sweet story of his 
kindness and honorableness, of his patience and energy, of his 
high-mindedness and his devotion to duty, that I heard as a boy 
around the fireside of my old Iowa home. From Senator 
Allison's life there are man}- lessons that we may learn; in 
fact, there seems no virtues as a public man and a good citizen 
that he did not possess. Patience, perseverance, devotion, cour- 
age, integrity — he had them all. Bombast, deceit, treachery, 
jealousy, haughtiness — he lacked them all. His power was lev e, 
not fear; faithfulness to duty, not sordid ambition. Some men 
have won the applause of their fellow-men by fear; some have 
won it by power; some have won it by rare ability and bril- 
liancy of speech; but good old Senator Allison won ii with 
love. His kindliness of heart and fraternal sympathy attracted 
him to all men. At home and abroad, in Iowa and in Wash- 
ington, in the palace and in the cottage, forty years ago and 
until death called him home, people loved him. 



96 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Mr. President, those of us who attended his funeral learned, 
perhaps for the first time, that nearly all his dear ones had 
preceded him in death, and yet we remember also that his 
mourners were legion. From every part of his Commonwealth; 
aye, from the remotest portions of the Republic, there came 
men to pay the last sad tribute of love. Every Stale in the 
Union is indebted to Iowa for giving to the country William 
B. Allison, and one of the bright spots in her escutcheon for- 
ever is his honor and his fame. He was honored by a State 
and he honored a Nation. His fame was broader than his 
State, his rank among men was higher than the position he 
held, and his honor was greater than the honor of his office. 
Not all men who have been honored have been honorable, for 
public life is honorable to such only as honor it, and the sen. 11 
of fame is for those only who can write their own names upon 
it. Public life makes some men famous and others infamous; 
some men noble and others base and ignoble. Holding public 
office is only an opportunity, and belongs to no man who does 
not feel its responsibility and who is not determined to measure 
up to its obligations. 

It is a means and not an end; lor while it affords opportunity, 
it carries no guarantee. It opens the way. but bears no bou- 
quets; it offers a throne, but never lays a crown. True, it may 
not always have been so esthetically contemplated; it may have 
been given at times as a decoration or a prize for ignoble things; 
it mav have been sought as the end, with little concern as to 
the means employed. Men may have been elected without qual- 
ification for its duties and without purpose of qualifying for 
them, but in the end the prize is cheap and valueless unless at- 
tended with honorable purpose, lofty ideals, and sacred devotion 
to duty. It is not unjust to any man to say that American his- 
tory affords no career longer in time, more successful in achieve- 



Address of Mr. Burkett, oj Nebraska 07 

merit, higher in ideal, purer in motive, and more beloved in 
memory than that of Senator Allison . For more than forty 
years he bore the burdens of his country, and upon his name 
there is no blemish and upon his honor there is no shame. He 
dispensed the people's millions, and upon his reputation no 
awkward aspersion hangs." Between the people's extrava 
gance and the people's purse he stood, and during all the years 
that he directed the appropriations there was no deficit in the 
Public Treasury. He saw the ordinary expenditures of the Gov- 
ernment grow from sixty millions to more than six hundred mil- 
lions, but not a dollar of deficiency or of misappropriation 
reflects upon his judgment and integrity. 

As I have contemplated the more than forty years of his mag- 
nificent public career, I have thought of the growth of the Re- 
public in that time and of the obligation to the men of his gen- 
eration. What years this last half century have been; what 
visions he saw and what dreams he realized; what enormous 
tasks have been accomplished and what stupendous problems 
have been solved. In those years we have extended out terri- 
tory, multiplied our resources, trebled our population, quad- 
rupled our railroad miles, multiplied our foreign commerce by 
six and our domestic commerce by ten. We have watered the 
prairies, drained the swamps, and harnessed the pent-up energy 
of the mountain. We have peopled the prairies with cities ami 
congested the cities with the people's enterprises. Inventive 
genius has revolutionized industry and mechanical development 
has multiplied the people's power. From inconsequence inter 
nationally, we have become the political masters of the world; 
and contemporaneous with it all, we trace tin- evolution o! social 
and commercial and political ideals unto the magnificent 
standard of to-day. The demand upon the genius and con- 
science of men has never been greater, in my opinion, than dur- 
78135— S. Doc. 766, 60—2 7 



98 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

ing those prolific years that vSenator Allison exerted lus great 
influence upon the affairs of men. 

It required cool heads and strong hearts, big minds and 
steady nerves to pilot our ship of state during this eventful half 
century. If men were more patriotic in the olden days of the 
Nation, it is only in the meaning that we give the word, if 
they were wiser it is only in our estimate of the relative impor- 
tance of the problems they solved. I confess that to my mind 
the patriotism that establishes a flag is of no higher order than 
the patriotism that sustains it and enlarges it and multiplies 
its significance in the power and opportunity and possibility 
of the people that it stands for. Popular government is not pre- 
served 1)\' any different patriotism than that which conceives it. 
To me it required no greater wisdom and genius to write a con- 
stitution than to develop a continent under it, assure its per- 
petuity and maintain its integrity of purpose and direct its 
successful operation. It was during the life of Senator Allison 
and to which he gave so much of his great intellect that we 
unburdened ourselves of traditions and prejudices and pro- 
vincialisms that hobbled us in our earlier national life and 
became, in fact, the mighty nation that the founders of the 
Republic ordained that we should be. It was during those years 
that we threw off the yoke of colonialism, brushed aside the 
obstacles of jealousy and sectionalism, made facts of the ideals 
of the Constitution, and started out upon a conquest commercial, 
industrial, and political, unequaled in its achievement in all the 
ages that the world has stood. We adjudicated many of the 
conflicts of thought that formerly handicapped us and developed 
a system of practical jurisprudence for political and industrial 
purposes. Well may we pause in our triumphant march of 
national supremacy upon this sad occasion and reflect upon the 
course we have traveled and pay due homage to tin- generation 



Address of Mr. Burkett, oj Nebraska 99 

of men who piloted our craft in what has been the greatest half 
century of all the world's history. Mr. President, in my opin- 
ion in all the annals of history there is portrayed no people 
anywhere that equaled in valor and self-sacrifice and energy 
and perseverance, and lofty ideals and noble purposes, the men 
and the women of the last fifty years. Well may we pay a 
tribute to our fathers and gather inspiration if we can for the 
performance of our duty in the day of our responsibility. 

I have thus spoken, Mr. President, prompted not by sentiment 
alone, although I confess the thought tends to make one senti 
mental; nor, indeed, Mr. President, have I spoken because of 
apprehension for the future. But we are so young and vigor- 
ous as a nation, so hopeful and buoyant as individuals, and so 
proud and victorious as a people that, like boys at play, we 
almost defy the laws of health and safety, and in our manhood 
we almost forget the guiding hand that was around 11s and 
about us directing our toddling steps, shielding us from danger, 
and perfecting us in the power and glory of our matured man- 
hood. I shall not be understood as despairing of the future, 
for, in the appropriate words of another, "To despair of America 
would be to despair of humanity." I am optimistic upon the 
growing virtues and capacity of men, and believe that each 
generation is an improvement upon anything that lias gone 
before it. That is the highest tribute to any generation, thai it 
left the world and mankind better than it found them. Put 
aside from that, I have such faith in an all-wise and all sufficient 
Providence that has hitherto attended our course, thai gave to 
us the constructive genius of Washington, 1 lie preserving 
genius of Lincoln, and the promotive genius of Senator Ajllison 
and his contemporaries, to believe that we shall not lack in 
men of power and conscience to perpetuate tin- ideals thai have 
hitherto directed our achievements and shaped our destiny. 



ioo Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

I presume Senator Allison had sonic faults, although it 
always seemed to me that they were less obtrusive and less 
complained of than those of any other man I ever knew. I 
presume he had his shortcomings, although thev were not 
greatly apparent. I presume that during his long and eventful 
career he has felt the sting of ingratitude and the heartburnings 
of unjust criticism. Such is the penalty of public life, and such 
it will always be. 

If such penalties were visited upon him, he bore them bravely 
and uncomplainingly, and in the grandeur of his stature of mind 
anil heart he arose above them and the authors of thern. He 
was too big to be mean to his enemies, too big to be impa- 
tient with his traducers, too big to denounce his culumniators, 
and too big to quarrel with them. He was forgiving when 
others were vengeful, unrelenting when others were dismayed, 
thoughtful when others were noisy, and tolerant when others 
were extreme. He never leaped without looking; he never con- 
demned without reason nor acted without knowing. It was 
these qualities of mind and heart that retained for him the 
love and loyalty of his people at home and qualified him for the 
great achievements of his life work. 

We may erect monuments to his memory, and we may extol 
his virtues, but, Mr. President, the impress of his memory and 
virtues will live long after our little monuments shall crumble 
and our pool- words shall be forgotten. More enduring than 
anything that we can do is the monument of love that he 
builded for himself in the grateful hearts of the American people, 
and more lasting than what we shall here say is his own indelible 
inscription upon the institutions and laws of his countrv. 



Address of Mr. Smith, 0} Michigan 



Address of Mr. Smith, of Michigan 

Mr. President: As I have listened to the eloquent eulogies 
on the late Senator Allison, I have thought many times during 
the afternoon of the great value of such a personality to the 
world, and I have congratulated myself over and over again 
that it was my privilege to personally know this truly great 
man. 

During the years of my public service I have heard much 
praise of dead colleagues, but never such a wealth of touching 
eulogy more appropriately bestowed than upon Iowa's noble 
son. 

I have recalled to my mind the beautiful relationship exist- 
ing between Senator Allison and all his colleagues. That 
kind, gentle, helpful, lovable nature went out to the younger 
Members of this body with unstinted generosity and marked 
effect, and I do not wonder that the older men here came 
to love him so dearly and have been so deeply moved by his 
departure. 

But, Mr. President, I have also thought many times during 
this day of the consolation and the comfort that it must afford 
the brilliant young colleague of that great statesman to feel that 
during all the years of their association he was so loyal, so kind, 
so considerate, so sympathetic with every aspiration and desire 
of his aged colleague. True and loving to the end, under all 
conditions and at all times, in sickness and in health, com 
forting him in his last and lonely battle with the dread reaper, 
the junior Senator from Iowa [Mr. Dolliver] filled the final 
hours of his friend with a radiance and perfume difficult to 
describe, and the gentle ministrations which we witnessed here 



102 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

will for many years to come constitute one of the priceless 

traditions of this Chamber. 

Senator Allison's life was a struggle. Born in poverty, he 
fought his own way up the ladder to the topmost round, never 
forgetting the steps by which he climbed. His life gives the lie 
to the pretense of men that there are no longer opportunities in 
America for the humble and unpretentious. His brilliant ex- 
ample is an inspiration to us all. I hope the great bod) of the 
American people may draw from it the lessons which it richly 
affords, and that in the estimate of the people public men will 
be healed with kindlier consideration and more accurate judg- 
ment by reason of this noble and unselfish life, consecrated to 
the general weal. 

Mr. President, I attended the funeral services of the late 
Senator at his home city. I witnessed with ray own eves the 
depth of feeling which was showered upon him. I saw the streets 
filled with those who loved him, standing in silent testimony to 
their deep affection, paying the last great tribute to his matchless 
life. I saw his body lowered to its last resting place and heard 
the lamentations of those he served. Upon that historic mound. 
which overlooks the valley and by which courses the Mississippi 
in its silent march to the sea, William Boyd Allison sleeps the 
long sleep. 1 have wondered many times whether, in the 
alchemy of nature, there was to come again a man of similar 

mold 

It is said of Napoleon that after the battle of Toulon, weary 

and tired and unable longer to withstand the call for rest, he 

sat down upon the battlefield, and sitting fell asleep. The old 

guard of the Little Corporal formed a hollow square about him 

and watched with patient vigil until the rest came to his tired 

eves. So in the State that Allison honored so highly, as time 

began to furrow his brow and rechisel his faultless features, as 



Address of Mr. Smith, of Michigan 103 

his giant frame gave way under the weight of great responsi- 
bilities, the old guard of Iowa formed a hollow square about 
him and watched over him and protected his illustrious name 
with a wealth of manly affection and genuine enthusiasm which 
must have rendered his last days sweet and choice indeed. 

All of us must grow old, the snow must fall upon our heads; 
it is so ordained; but must we falter and sav — 
The night has come, it is no longer day. 

The night has not yet come; we are not quite cut off from 
labor by the failing light. 

Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales, 
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales; 
Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last, 
Completed Faust when eighty years were past. 
These are indeed exceptions; but they show- 
How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow 
Into the arctic regions of our lives, 
Where little else than life itself survives. 
As the barometer foretells the storm 
While still the skies are clear, the weather warm, 
So something in us, as old age draws near, 
Betrays the pressure of the atmosphere. 
The nimble mercury, ere we are aware, 
Descends the elastic ladder of the air; 
The telltale blood in artery and vein 
Sinks from its higher levels in the brain; 
Whatever poet, orator, or sage 
May say of it, old age is still old age. 
It is the waning, not the crescent moon; 
The dusk of evening, not the blaze of noon. 
* * * * 

And as the evening twilight fades awaj 
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. 

The life of this great statesman, simple, pure, modest, and 
unaffected, kindly, gentle, and just, is a benediction to us till. 
He has crossed the great river, made wider by our affections 
and deepened by our tears. The world is poorer for his going, 
and heaven has a new attraction for us all. 



io4 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Borah, of Idaho 

Mr. President: Perhaps there is no greater distinction, no 
higher honor within the reach of men in these days than that 
which may be gathered in the faithful discharge of official 
duties. It seems to me that the man who takes office under a 
republic, modest as the emoluments must be, onerous and ar- 
duous as the duties are, and, with an eye single to the honoi 
and glory of his State and his Government, works patiently on 
to the close of his earthly existence, is entitled in every sense 
to the commendation and love of his fellow-men. lie has given 
to his country all- his time, his ability, the benefit of his watch- 
ful, untiring leadership, the uplifting and protecting influence 
of his patriotism. It must be said that when the end comes, 
the highest obligation which one owes to his country has in full 
been liquidated. 

Senator Allison met in full measure this high standard of 
public dutv. He came to the public service in early manhood. 
He gave to the public service not only the best, but all the years 
of his life —resting not even for the final journey, although un- 
derstanding well that notice of the departure had been served. 
Here, bowed and worn and broken, he died, active, vigilant, 
and faithful to the very last. Holding to the end the gratitude 
and love of his great State, the admiration and confidence of 
the Nation, and the trust and veneration of his colleagues, he 
passed quietly from our midst as one well worn and weary with 
the work of the day retires for the slumbers of the night. The 
most welcome death to the veteran must be the death which 
finds the armor on. 



Address of Mr. Borah, of Idaho 105 

Senator William B. Allison was born March 2. [829, two 
days prior to the first inauguration of Andrew Jackson as 
President of the United States. At the same time, out in the 
wilderness of the West, there was trudging alongside of his ox 
team, searching out a new home in his adopted State of Illinois, 
one who was in due course of time to become the most remark- 
able figure of the centuries, the dominating influence of whose 
indescribable genius was to change the current of history and 
and rearrange the forces of American civilization. 

The historian, commenting upon the election of Andrew lack- 
son, tells us that it marked the dawn of a new era in American 
polities — the era of control of our politics by the masses in t he- 
true sense of the term. A strange heresy had existed among 
some of the leaders of prior days. It was extensively believed 
that only the highly educated and the property holders should 
have a voice in the Government. It has been said by one high 
in the councils of the Nation, "The people should have as little 
to do as may be about the Government." By another, "The 
people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended 
patriots." And yet another, " It would be as unnatural to refer 
the choice of a proper character for Chief Magistrate to the 
people as it would be to refer the trial of colors to a blind 
man." Most of the States had provided a property qualifica- 
tion for voters. 

The election of Jackson marked the first real uprising and 
victory of the forces which rejected those doctrines — the first 
signal triumph of those to whom reference was often made as 
the "uneducated" and "propertyless rabble." And, strange as 
it may seem, this conflict was to go on in different ways, by 
instrumentalities peculiar to the choosing of a power the secret 
of whose counsels we can not know, until the country bo) . raised 
from amid the "uneducated" and "propertyless" masses to lie 



106 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

their Chief Magistrate and devoted friend, was upon the field 
of Gettysburg, with slavery in its last throes writhing at his 
feet, to announce the fulfillment of this dispensation in words 
that ■-till live and will never die: "The government of the peo- 
ple, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the 
earth." 

Under the inspiration of these sublime teachings Senator 
Allison grew to manhood. In the midst of the culminating 
scenes which made these doctrines the universal principles of 
the Republic, he prepared to enter public life, and in the heroic 
days of their final embodiment into our great Charter he reached 
the full stature of American statesmanship. Thus prepared 
iii. 1 equipped, when the Nation, reunited and her people wholly 
free, entered upon that period of her marvelous material growth; 
when deserts were to become empires of wealth and trackless 
plains be changed into great States; when the restless pioneer 
should unlock the imprisoned riches of the mountains, and rail- 
roads and telegraphs and telephones should compound us into 
one compact and indomitable industrial force, and all this bring 
up for solution the complex problems of modern legislation, he 
was to become a conspicuous and masterful figure. Cautious 
and conservative, wakeful and resourceful, an adept in the sci- 
ence of legislation, and a marvel in the adjusting of the differ- 
ences of men. lie was to become for years a leader in the greatest 
legislative body in the world. There was nothing here of mo- 
ment during his long service concerning which men did not seek 
his counsel; there was no vexed problem, no profound question 
of policy but his experience and his wisdom, his patience and 
his patriotism could master. 

There is a story in classic literature that a sculptor while 
patiently working with lingering anxiety upon an obscure por- 
tion of a statue was asked why lie dwelt so long and with such 



Address of Mr. Borah, of Idaho 107 

care upon that portion of the work which perhaps no human 
eye would ever behold. The inspired artist replied : 

This hidden finish excites most my zeal, for here the gods will look for 
the evidence of fidelity and genius upon which they will either deny or 

give to me immortality. 

One of the older Senators said the other day we should hang 
upon these walls his picture painted by some great artist, and 
perhaps his beloved State may some time conclude to place for 
him a monument here in the Capitol; but his claim to immor- 
tality is to be found hidden away among the statutes, found 
here in the long story of the faithful, painstaking service, where 
without ostentation or acclaim he lingered with uncommon /.eal 
to the hour when the last session closed at which he was per- 
mitted to attend. Here is his monument; he erected it him- 
self, and no one will erect another half so lasting as the one 
which grew to such sublime proportions under his own hand 
and direction. 

Mr. President, generously each generation remembers and 
recounts the achievements of the heroes of war. The myste- 
rious power of the martial spell sometimes sleeps, but never 
dies. Yonder in the hall of fame the soldier and the statesman 
stand side by side, but the visitor lingers longest before tin 
figures which call up the great battle scenes of the Republic. 
We do not complain that it is so; hut can there be a finer fiber 
of manhood, a service to one's country calling for a keener 
sense of duty, a more robust and resolute courage, a higher 
order of patriotism than are revealed and exemplified in the 
great careers of civil life? The questions and problems dealt 
with involve the physical and moral well-being of countless 
thousands. The enemies of the Nation with whom they must 
contend do not march under foreign colors, but subtle, specious, 
and insatiable throng, in robes of citizenship, the corridors of 



his Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

the Capitol. It is not a question of interposing skill and valor 
against an open enemy, but of standing guard in every hour 
against the power and influence of those who would gratify 
personal ambition to the disadvantage of the Government and 
the permanent loss of the common rights and privileges of the 
people. It involves the almost superhuman task of reconciling 
the conflicting demands of the great commercial interests that 
industry may have its just reward and every element of thrift 
and frugality their compensation. In the halls of legislation, 
more than any other place in the world, government fights its 
battles with selfishness and greed, with reckless expenditure, 
with special privileges, a conflict never over and never won, a 
conflict calling for poise of character, steadfastness of purpose, 
and a patriotism as loyal as ever displayed on the field of battle. 
A man who occupies a place of responsibility and command 
in such a conflict for thirty-five years and passes on without 
reproach and unscathed has earned glory enough for one man. 
His place in history is secure. 



Address of Mr. Cummins, of Iowa 109 



Address of Mr. Cummins, of Iowa 

Mr. President: As I rise to say the last word upon this 
occasion, after listening to the beautiful tributes that have 
been inspired by affectionate hearts, illuminated by loving 
memories and vivified by eloquent lips, f am conscious of the 
despair which must always be felt when the hand attempts ( 1 
gild the true gold or lay its crude colors upon the lovely shades 
of the lily. In the few moments at my command 1 shall nol 
undertake to review the life of William P.. Allison. That 
work has already been faithfully done, and I venture to view 
the subject from another standpoint. 

Every day and every hour somewhere the flowers of affection 
are being laid upon the last resting places of those who have 
gone to their reward upon the other shore. Every day and 
every hour somewhere sad hearts are pouring out their stores 
of love upon the memories of those who have discharged 
nature's last and greatest debt. Notwithstanding, however, the 
universality of the ceremony through which we are now passing, 
I think it may be truthfully declared that this hour is unlike 
the hours which humanity ordinarily gives to the retrospect of 
an honorable, useful life. It does not often happen that in ren- 
dering a just tribute to the memory of one whose activities have 
forever ceased we are compelled to survey the history of a 
long and overwhelmingly important period in the history of our 
country's affairs. Generally it is appropriate upon such an oc- 
casion to do no more than to touch with loving tenderness the 
character and quality of the man. In this instance, however, 



no Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

the whole scene changes, and there rises up before us, whether 
we will it so or not, forty-live years of a nation's life, years that 
have no parallels, no companions in all the annals of the earth. 

Standing here and looking backward over these years 1 can 
see, it is true, the noble and commanding figure of the man 
whose work we are commemorating, clothed in the garb of his 
integrity of purpose, his openness of heart, and his amiability 
of temperament, but in the foreground I see more clearly still 
the procession of events covering nearly a half century of time; 
and in this march, the most wonderful which civilization has 
ever undergone, one man has kept step day after day and year 
after year, steadying the column here, closing the broken ranks 
there, and cheering and encouraging it everywhere. 

To have merely lived in manhood from March 4, 1803, the day 
upon which William B. Allison entered the Congress of the 
United States, to August 4, [908, the day upon which he died, 
as a citizen of the United Slates was to enjoy an opportunity 
the like of which the world never gave to mortal man. To have 
borne a part, however obscure, in the drama of self-government 
throughout these years, as the Republic staggered under the 
blow of the civil war, as it felt its way through the perils of 
reconstruction, as it readjusted its financial policy, as it grap- 
pled with the problems which growth, prosperity, and wealth 
created, was to be distinguished above the men of any other 
time. To have been a prominent and conspicuous leader, to 
have been a safe and valued counselor, to have been strong and 
helpful in determining the fortunes of I he Nation throughout 
these years in which we emerged from obscurity and securely 
occupied the highest station known in the history of mankind, 
was to attain the loftiest pinnacle of human honor, and this is 
the crown which a just and grateful people will bestow upon 
the memory of William B. Allison. 



Address of Mr. Cummins, of Iowa in 

Of his specific work in the House of Representatives for eight 
years, and of his greater work in the Senate for nearly thirty- 
six continuous years, I shall not speak. I must view his public 
service as a whole; and looking at it from that exalted stand- 
point, I do not hesitate to say that his name is deeply engraven 
upon the tablets of fame. I rarely venture upon an analysis of 
a claim for greatness, simply because greatness is incapable 
of analysis just as it is incapable of comparison. Without 
violating this rule, I may say, however, that safe and permanent 
progress in a country like ours requires varying types of men. 
It requires the quick, bold leader who does not reflect long, who 
reaches his conclusions with a rush, and who presses inces- 
santly on because he is so sure that he is right that he knows 
that all persons who differ from him must be wrong. Such a 
man is oftentimes in error, sometimes intolerant, but without 
him the Republic could not live. There is another man equally 
important to the welfare of the people. It is the man who 
gathers up all these proposals for advance and for change, who 
reflects upon them with exceeding care and deliberation, who 
discovers their weaknesses and supplements their imperfections, 
who molds differences into harmonious action, who bridges the 
distance which separates those who insist upon the quickstep 
all the time from those who want to camp all the time; and 
such a man was Senator Allison. I do not attempt to rank 
these types. Suffice it to say that both being essential in the 
economy of the world, both extort our praise and admiration. 

The Senate never had a member more deeply attached to his 
associates or more devoted to the work of his office than Mr. 
Allison 1 . I remember one incident of this attachment and de- 
votion which greatly impressed me. About the first of the year 
1S97 Mr. McKinley, the President-elect, commissioned me to 
bear an invitation to Senator Allison to become the Seen 



H2 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

of State in the incoming administration, and he enjoined upon 
me strongly the necessity of suggesting to Senator Allison 
that it was his dutv to aid the administration by accepting the 
place offered to him. In a long personal interview, I pressed 
this phase of the matter as I had been asked to do; and I shall 
never forget the reply I received. It was a tender expression 
of the affection he felt for his fellow-members in the Senate. 
of the friendships and intimacies that had grown up through 
a Inn.; eourse of years, of the faith and trust he had in them 
and they in him, of the impossibility of severing the bonds 
which time had knitted, and the ease and pleasure with which 
he performed the duties so familiar; and having summed up 
all these things, lie looked me squarely in the eye and asked 
me this question : Do you now think it is my dutv to go from 
the Senate to a new held of activity?" and I unhesitatingly 
answered him, " No." 

He was a gentle man in the truest sense of these words. Ik- 
was a courteous man, not only to those of high degree, but of 
low degree as well. He was a modest man and vaunted himself 
not at all. He was a gracious, kindly man, and counted no 
labor too severe that promoted the welfare of his friends. He 
was a learned man, for he not only studied the history of his 
country, but the greater part of it he had helped to make. He 
was an honest man, and did the right as it was given to him to 
see the right. His body rests in an honored grave, and his 
memorv is not only a benediction to the people of his State, 
but is treasured throughout the length and breadth of the land. 

Mr. President, as a further evidence of respect, I move that 
t he Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimouslv agreed to, and (at 4 o'clock 
and 58 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until Monday. 
February 8, 1900. at 12 o'clock m 



Proceedings in the House 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE 

Mi inday, Decembi i ~. 1908. 
A message from the Senate, by Mr. Crockett, its reading clerk, 
announced that the Senate had passed the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of the Hon. William Boyd Allison, for more than thirty-five years a 
Senator from the State of Iowa. 

A'r wived, That the Secretary communicate a copy <>f these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceasi 
Senator, the Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Hepburn. Mr. Speaker, a message from the Senate has 
given official announcement of the death of William B. Alli- 
son, late a Senator from the State of Iowa. In behalf of the 
delegation from that State, I offer the following resolution and 
ask its present consideration. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow and sincere 
regret of the death of Hon. William Boyd Allison, who served with dis 
tinction for eight years as a member of this body and continuously foi 
more than thirty-five years as a Senator from the State of Iowa. 

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the Senate. 

Ri olved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of our deceased 
colleague, Hon. William Boyd Allison, the House do now adjourn. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Accordingly, at 1 o'clock and 2 minutes p. in., the House 
adjourned until to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon. 
78135— S. Doc. 766, 60-2 8 



ii4 Proceedings in the House 

Tuesday, January rg, 1909. 
Mr. Cousins. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the 
present consideration of the following order. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

1 <t,i, ) No. 17. 

Ordered, Thatthere be a session of the Houseat 2 p. m., Sunday, Feb- 
ruarj 21, foi the delivery of eulogies on the character, life, and public serv- 
ices of Hon. William B. Allison, late a member of the United States 
Senate from the State of Iowa 

The order was agreed to. 

Monday, F< brum 1 8, 1909. 

The committee informally rose; and Mr. Foster of Vermont 
having taken the chair as Speaker pro tempore, a message from 
the Senate, by Mr. Crockett, one of its clerks, announced that 
the Senate had passed the following resolutions: 

R< wived, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the Senate 
has heard the announcement of the death oi Hon William B. Alli o 
late a Senator from the State of Iowa, 

R, wived, That as a mark of respeel to the memory of the deceased the 
business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay 
fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services 

Resolved, That the Secretary transmit to the family of the deceased a 
copy of these resolutions, with the action of the Senate thereon 

K, wlvi d, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House 
of Representatives 

Rt wived, Thai as a further mark of respect to the memory of I lie deceased 
thi Sen. lie do now adjourn. 

St nday, February si , 1909. 

The House met at 12 o'clock m., and was called to order by 
Mr. Smith of Iowa, as Speaker pro tempore. 

The following prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Rev. 
Henry X. Couden, D. D. : 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father; in whom we live and 
move and have our being; we would pour out the oblations of 
our hearts in gratitude and praise to Thee, the dispenser of 



Proceedings in the Hous< 115 

all good gifts, and hallow Thy name in a faithful and unselfish 
devotion to Thee and our fellow-men, and thus prove ourselves 
worthy of all the gifts Thou hast bestowed upon us. We thank 
Thee for that spirit down deep in the hearts of men which 
recognizes and appreciates the nobility of soul in their fellows, 
which displays itself in a faithful service to the public weal, 
for this special service to-day, sacred to the memory of men who 
have conspicuously served their country in the Congress of the 
United States, and passed on to their reward, ('.rant, oh most 
merciful Father, that their example may serve as beacon lights 
to guide us and those who shall come after us to high and noble 
living. Comfort the friends, colleagues, and families of the 
departed, and help them to look forward with bright anticipa 
tions to that larger life beyond the grave, where there shall be no 
more parting, and where God shall wipe all tears from all faces, 
and where peace and happiness shall reign forever. In Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

Mr. Smith of Iowa took the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The hour of 2 o'clock having 
arrived, the Clerk will read the special order. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House at 2 p, m. Sunday, Pebruan 
21, for the delivery of eulogies on the life, character, and public sen ices of 

the Hon. William B. Allison, late a Member of the United Stairs Senate 
from the State of Iowa. 

Mr. Cousins. Mr. Speaker, I offer the resolutions which I 
send to the Clerk's desk. 
The Clerk read as follows 

House n solution 58. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow ol the death of 
Hon. William B. Allison, late a member of the United States Senate from 
the State of Iowa, which occurred at his home in the city of Dubuque, 
August 4, 1908. 



116 Proceedings in the Houst 

Rt solved, That the business of the House be now suspended that oppor- 
tunity may lie given to pay tribute tn his memory. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the deceased and in 
recognition of his distinguished public service the House, at the conclusion 
of the memorial exercises of the day, shall stand adjourned 

l\, solved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, Thai the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the family 
of the deceased. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 



Address oj Mr. Cousins, oj Iowa 



memorial Addresses 



Address of Mr. Cousins, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: < >ur custom of memorializing Members of Con- 
gress who die while in the public sen-ice has been commented 
upon extensively. Differing opinions are entertained in Con- 
gress itself, and more widely differing views throughout the 
country; but as for the observances of this particular hour, no 
question will be raised, either in or out of Congress, as to the 
propriety, the fitness, or the willingness of all our countrymen, 
and, indeed, of other countries, to set apart a portion of this da} 
for opportunity to pay tribute to a statesman who served his 
country in the United States Senate for a longer period of time 
than any other man in all our history — William B. Allison. 
That fact is prima facie evidence that he deserved the prefer 
ment bestowed upon him. 

His Creator saved him and prolonged his life for nearly a full 
decade beyond the mark of three score years and ten — from 
March 2, 1829, to August 4, 190S — and all mankind, especially 
his countrymen, are wishing to-day that he could have been 
spared longer for continuance of his unprecedented usefulness. 

Long before I ever held or dreamed of office, he was the first 
of the really strong men in public life whom I had opportunitj 
of knowing, and he was the most unselfish and genuine friend 
I ever knew intimately in eminent and exalted station. 1 te was 
like a father to all young men of his adopted State, and he 
never lost the loyalty of any one of them who knew him and 
who had any sense of gratitude. 



1 1 S Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Coming from ( )hio, he fitted well into the hard-working, 
serious, and patriotic citizenship of Iowa. 

Senator ALLISON, like most of us, had to work, and he always 
had sympathy for those of the younger generation who he knew 
were born to toil. He never ran ahead of the column. He 
stood shoulder to shoulder with his colleagues. He did not seek 
distinguishment, but deserved it always when it was bestowed 
upon him. 

Thus he came into the confidence of all men — by modesty and 
honesty and industry and tolerance, and by such solicitous and 
faithful interest in the public welfare that all men the country 
over finally came to trust him and respect him. 

First, a Representative in Congress for eight years; then, after 
one defeat, our Senator; then came the longest and most useful 
career in all our history — nearly thirty-six years in the Senate. 
Early in his senatorial career his ability was most fitly exercised 
in a sensible and practicable system of government for the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and then in an internal-revenue system that 
has survived throughout many years of trial with few improve- 
ments. Then at last he came to that great and large responsi- 
bility and usefulness of shaping tariffs and of appropriating 
necessary and stupendous sums of money for our foreign and 
domestic needs and obligations. And in that great capacity and 
practice he acquired a knowledge and familiarity that surpassed 
all others in our history. 

With a memory that was marvelous, with industry the equiv- 
alent of our fathers', and with a mind intent upon equity and 
justice, he became the trusted counselor in fiscal affairs and in 
matters of appropriations, so that he was relied upon as the 
prudential adviser on the most intricate and difficult subjects 
of our Government. 

The late Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, writing his autobi- 
ography in 1903, six years before the death of Senator Allison, 



Address of Mr. Cousins, of Iowa i 10 

whom he knew well and personally for more than forty years, 

recorded this significant and deliberate estimate: 

His chief distinction lias been gained by a service ol thirty yeai in 
the Senate. He was out of public life two years, and then was elected 
to the Senate, where he has been kept by the Slate of Iowa, maintain 
ing the confidence of his State and of his associates in public life During 
all that time he has done what no other man in the country, in my judg- 
ment, could have done so well. He has been a member of the -oat 
Committee on Appropriations for thirty years, most of the time chairman 
and for twenty-six years a member of the Committee on Finance. I It- 
has controlled, more than any other man, indeed more than any other ten 

men, the vast and constantly increasing public expenditure, ai mine 

now lo more than one thousand millions annually. It has been an eci ffli im 
ical, honest, and wise expenditure. He has been compelled, in the dis- 
charge of his duties, to understand the complications and mechanis f 

public administration and public expenditure. That is a knowledge in 
which nobody else in the Senate, except Senator Hale of Maine and Senatoi 
Cockrell of Missouri, can compare with him. He has by his wis,- and 
moderate counsel drawn the fire from many a wild and dangerous scheme 
which menaced the public peace and safety. 

On the day when this great friend of all of us departed it 
happened I was traveling in a foreign land. A clergyman of 
that countrv, reading from a paper, said aloud, "Another good 
man gone, Allison of Iowa." Observing my concern, although 
a stranger, he passed to me the paper containing the dispatch 
that chronicled the sad and sudden information. It was im 
possible for me to reach our State in time to lay a Sower upon 
the most distinguished and respected grave which tin- city of 
Dubuque has ever known, and I am content that 1 never saw 
the face of Senator ALLISON after his serene and amiable spirit 
had departed. 

There never was in all our world a kindlier countenance than 
his when animated with the glow of life and health and with 
that peculiar cast of gentle and serene nobility. His intelligent 
and loftv spirit shone always in his faultless lace, and his hand 
was always warm with a fatherly and genial grasp. 

It was my great good fortune to travel with him in many 
countries of the' world and likewise- here at home. Even when 



120 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

nearly 80 years of age he was a must interesting companion, bet- 
ter than most of the young men of our day, because his memory 
was stored with rich and vivid reminiscences of early days and 
of public life and characters. The proprieties of this occasion 
do not offer opportunity for details of his conversations, but the 
memory of them shall never be obliterated. 

His life, as indicated by his countenance, was noble and 
serene, even to the very last of his useful and unselfish service; 
and save for one or two unspeakable political attacks which 
emanated from a debauchery of our modern journalism, his 
great and generous heart was never hurt by hostile comment. 

The fertile and appreciative State of his adoption registered 
must emphatically, not long before his dying hour, pronounced 
approval of his life and noble services. 

After more than forty years of powerful and devoted service 
to the Nation, thrice bidden to the Cabinet, once almost nomi- 
nated for the Presidency, he stood at last a master in the con- 
sideration of the details of free government amongst a great 
constituencv and amongst his colleagues in the Congress, as a 
mighty oak tree stands in the midst of a forest, bending at limes 
and bowing with lofty and respectful salutations and with 
stately and dignified humility, which always and forever in our 
world betokens wisdom. 

We scarcelv dare inquire of history what shall finally be the 
destiny of the republics of our world; but with such lives and 
characters as the wise and patient one whom we memorialize 
to-day, the generations of the future centuries may look back- 
ward with all confidence upon an example of intellectual indus- 
try and honesty, and then look forward with an inspiration that 
should lift them to a greater and a nobler destiny and maybe 
to an approximately perfect day when intelligent and modest 
righteousness may govern in our world. 



Address 0} Mr. Hepburn, 0) Iowa 



Address of Mr. Hepburn, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: My personal acquaintance with Senator Alli- 
son covered a period of more than fifty years. I met him very 
shortly after his removal to the State of Iowa, in the city of I >es 
Moines, during the first session of the general assembly ever held 
in that city. With him I assisted in easting the vote of Iowa 
in the Republican National Convention of i860 that nominated 
Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. During a long portion 
of these fifty years of which I have spoken I knew the late 
Senator intimately, and I have often thought that he was most 
fortunate in the period of the world's history in which his great 
services were rendered. He was fitted for service in that period 
1 iv his earlv life and early associations. He was born and reared 
and educated in the Western Reserve. Gentlemen who are 
familiar with the history of that portion of our country know 
that in that region flourished as in no other portion of the 
United States, fifty or more years ago, that love of liberty, that 
discussion of liberty, of equality of men, of their rights under 
the Constitution and under the broader constitution of God's 
law, developed later in the terrific strife and in the adjustment 
of the questions settled later, calling for the exercise of the 
highest possible genius. 

Senator Allison's first political thought came at a time 
when men were discussing the wisdom of the legislation known 
to be embodied in what was then called the "Kansas Nebraska 
bill." 'the discussion that brought bloodshed, chaos, and an- 
archy into one of the territories that challenged the attention 
of the world, that led to civil strife and to all of the sanguinary 



122 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

scenes on the battlefields in this country between 1861 and [865. 
He did much in the organization of armies, or at least the 
operation of the great armies that participated in that struggle 
He served as a special aide to the governor of Iowa in the raising 
of troops during the period when 43,000 men were put into the 
field — 40 per cent of the entire military force in that Stale. 

One can readily see that in this sudden transition from the 
davs of peace to the days of war, calling for such great muster- 
ings of men, great effort was required. 

Senator ALLISON, after the raising of this vast force, took his 
seat in this House and served continuously for eight wars. 
During that period every question that was involved in the 
legislation that led to that outbreak of war, to the conduct of 
that war and to that pacification of the country that resulted 
from reconstruction of the States after the war occurred, and 
all were familiar to him, just as was all of that legislation that 
involved the building up of the resources of the country, pros- 
trated as it was by the expenditure of so many billions of 
money, and the loss of so much of the vital and wealth-creating 
forces as i his country suffered during the four years. 

Senator Allison was familiar with all of that earlier legisla- 
tion. He was familiar with all the efforts resulting in consti- 
tutional amendments. lie was familiar with all of that legis 
lation that gave us the sinews of war to successfully stand the 
expenditures of three and one half million dollars in a day. 
lie did much toward that pacification of which I have spoken 
that reconstruction of States. It gave to him a wonderful ad- 
vantage, first, because most of the themes thai were discussed 
were emotional themes in a great degree; the theme of liberty, 
.if equality, of the rights of men under the Constitution and the 
laws of nature. The necessity of preserving the Federal Union, 
the certainty of destruction to the individual States should 



Address of Mr. Hepburn, of Iowa 123 

their bond of union be severed, all of these questions, familiar 
to him, enforced upon him by study, by observation, by feeling, 

by conscience, enabled him to know and not merely to assume 
or guess. 

There is an idea among men that Senator Allison was a man 
who lacked positiveness, and many anecdotes are told of him. 
often mere matters ot fancy, that would indicate his lack of 
positiveness. And vet I undertake to say that among all of 
the distinguished characters that this country has produced, 
witli regards to matters of importance, matters that he had 
thoroughly weighed, where he had arrived at a conclusion, there 
was no man more positive than he was. His convictions were 
to him a certaintv about which he had no difficulty or hesitation 
in giving expression. A cautious man, not giving a hasty 
conclusion, he waited until the arrival of that condition of 
thought that was the result of study; and when it came, the 
conviction was one that he did nut hesitate to express. 

I think that probably the times in which he lived gave him 
this power. He was aided in it. too, by the certainties that 
he had in his mind. The man who lives in public life after 
this and who desires to know of the stirring events thai 
in the life of Senator Allison" must go to the records; research 
alone can enable him to secure that fund of information that 
will be the basis upon which conclusions must be built. Not 
so with the Senator. All these great questions wen pari of his 
life; all of these great questions were happenings of his daily 
occupation. He simply had to indulge in introspection, and 
stored away in the pigeonholes of his memory were all of these 
great facts that made him so useful in his day and generation. 

It is not claimed by the friends of Senator A.LLISON that he 
was a brilliant genius. But those who knew him best kno 
man of all his contemporaries was more useful in his country 



124 Memorial Addresses: William B.Allison 

than was the late Senator. He was a man who did not beget 
love, but who did invariably inspire respect and confidence. 
The best proof of that is to be found in the almost reverential 
manner in which his colleagues regarded him. Reference has 
been made to his unselfishness. 

He was always willing that every one of his colleagues should 
have his full share of whatever there was that he thought might 
be beneficial to him. He was always ready to cooperate with 
his colleagues in seeing to it that their rights were observed, 
and that was one of the secrets of his strength; that was one 
of the reasons why the people of Iowa were content — aye, more 
than content; glad- seven times to express their preference 
that he should be their representative in the Senate of the United 
States He never had controversies with his colleagues. He 
always had the support of them all. Can you think, gentle- 
men, of any time in all of the history of our State and its political 
contentions when those gentlemen that served in the Congress 
of the United States with him were not ready to testify to his 
worth and ready to assert their content that he should still be 
the head of the column' 

Mr. Speaker, he was a great character; great in his life, 
useful in his life, and useful in his death; because his life and 
character will be an inspiration to many and many a youth, 
teaching him that the door of opportunity here is wide open to 
all who have the courage and the energv to serve and to achieve. 



Address of Mr. Clark, 0} Missouri 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker : Missouri and Iowa are two of the greatest States 
carved from the Louisiana Purchase. They lie side by side and 
are bound closely together by ties of interest and of blood. 
Iowa's first two United States Senators were Missourians — Col. 
George W. Jones and Gen. Augustus Caesar Dodge. Both were 
from Ste. Genevieve, Mo., in which town, when it contained not 
over 1,000 inhabitants, lived simultaneously six men and boys 
destined for the high distinction of serving in the Senate of the 
United States. The most renowned of the six was Col. Thomas 
Hart Benton. When Senators Jones and Dodge arrived in 
Washington to take the oath of office, they discovered, to their 
dismay, that they had lost their credentials. Colonel Benton. 
the dean of the trans-Mississippi delegation in Congress, who 
had known them in their youth, smoothed their way by moving 
that they be admitted without credentials, and it was so ordered 

Though a majority of Missourians are, and always have been, 
of different political faith from Senator W'ii.i.iam Boyd ALLISON, 
we have always agreed with Iowans in pride in his blameless life, 
his high character, his fine ability, and his conspicuous career, 
He was Missouri's neighbor and her friend. 

A well-informed Missourian can not think of Gen. Francis 
Marion Cockrell without also thinking of Senator Wn.1.1 am Boyd 
ALLISON, and a well-informed Iowan can not think of Senatoi 
ALLISON without also thinking of General Cockrell, because 
these two eminent men for more than a quarter century were 
bosom friends and alternated in the powerful position of eh, 111 
man of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 



126 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Senator Allison served longer in Congress than any oilier 
man in the one hundred and twenty years under the Constitu- 
tion, a total of forty-three and one-half years, eight in the 
House and thirty-five and one-half in the Senate, thus leading 
Senator lustin S. Morrill, of Vermont, by a few months. Senator 
Morrill served ten years in the House and a little over thirty- 
two years in the Senate. They and Gen. John T. Morgan, of 
Alabama, are the only men ever elected for six full consecu- 
tive terms to the Federal Senate. Death alone prevented Sena 
tor ALLISON'S election for a seventh full term, as he had been 
nominated for that unprecedented honor. 

Colonel Benton was the first Senator to serve five full terms. 
He was for a long time popularly known as "The thirty years' 
Senator." anil when he wrote his invaluable book he entitled it 
"A Thirty Years' Mew." His record was never equaled till 
March 4, 1897, when Senator Morrill began his sixth consecutive 
term in the House of the Conscript Fathers. Only Senators 
William Boyd Allison, Justin S. Morrill, John I'. Jones, 
Francis Marion Cockrell, and John Tyler Morgan have equaled 
Benton's record for consecutive Senatorial service. In addition 
to these, only John Sherman and William M. Stewart have 
equaled Benton's length of Senatorial service. Missouri is the 
only State that has given two men thirty years of senatorial 
service each. Benton was defeated for a sixth term because he 
quarreled with his party, and Cockrell was defeated for his sixth 
term because the political complexion of the Missouri legislature 
was accidentally changed. 

In passing, it is both apropos and interesting to state that 
only three men have served more than thirty years in the House: 
Judge William S. Holman, of Indiana, General Ketcham, of New- 
York, and Mr. Speaker Cannon. ( hi the 4th of March General 
Bingham, of Pennsylvania, will enter upon his thirty-first year 
of service in the I louse. 



Address of Mr. Clark, oj Missouri 127 

The chances are that it will be one hundred and twenty Years 
before another man equals Senator Allison's length of service 
in Congress. In order for his career in that regard to be dttpli- 
cated, there must be a man worthy of the place and more 
popular with his party than any other man in his Stale, and 
it must also happen that his party holds the legislature con- 
tinuously — at least control it every time his successor is to lie 
elected. It is rare that one party controls the legislature of a 
State continuously for thirty years. Indeed, at one of his re- 
elections Senator Allison won by only one vote. In Greal 
Britain several men have served longer in the House of Com 
mons than Senator Allisox has served in Congress, but their 
system is different. There a man may be elected by any con- 
stituency. Here he must be a resident of the State front which 
he is elected to serve in either branch of Congress. In thai 
way the British always keep their strongest men in the Com- 
mons: At the last general parliamentary election the Liberals 
made such a clean sweep that the leader of the Conservatives 
was defeated in two districts and was compelled to appeal to a 
third before he could be elected. It was hinted that he was 
elected even then only through the connivance of the Liberal 
chieftains. 

For a score of years Senator Allison was a presidential |><>s 
sibility, and for a decade a presidential probabilitj It has 
been frequently stated that but for the objection of one of the 
present Senators, who was himself a candidate for tin- presi- 
dential nomination in 1888, Senator Allison would have been 
nominated instead of Gen. Benjamin Harrison that year. At 
least twice was Senator Allison pressed to accept a Cabinet 
portfolio. He refused the tempting offers. 

In the summer of 1899 I had the extraordinary and highly 
prized experience of conversing with two illustrious Americans 
now gone t<> their reward — Hon. James Harlan, of Iowa, the 



128 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

last man nominated for a Cabinet position by Abraham Lincoln, 
and Judge John H. Reagan, of Texas, then the only survivor 
of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis 

1 happened to speak in the beautiful little city where Senator 
Harlan resided. After the speaking, somebody told me at the 
hotel that the Senator, then a feeble man, was pleased to have 
visiting public men call on him. So I asked my informant to 
arrange an interview, which he did. 

Senator Harlan had gone from the Senate to the Cabinet, 
and had tin- rare good fortune to go from the Cabinet back into 
tile Senate 

So during the conversation I asked him if a man m the prime 
of life who liked a political career, being in the House or Senate 
and feeling that he had a good chance of remaining therein, 
would lie wise in exchanging it for an appointive position. 

He replied that he had been unusually fortunate in being 
sent back to the Senate after leaving it for the Cabinet, and 
his advice to such a man as I described would be not to exchange 
a s.at in House or Senate, provided he held it by what appeared 
to lie a certain tenure, for any appointive position except the 
Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States 
or for any elective office except the Presidency of the Republic. 
Most assuredly that was a high estimate to place on the value 
of a scat in either House of Congress Whether Senator Harlan 
ever communicated that idea to Senator Allison I do not 
know; but I do know that Senator Allison's conduct was in 
harmony with Senator Harlan's idea. 

Senator ALLISON was not in the lime light as much as sev- 
eral of his senatorial contemporaries, for there was no element 
of the spectacular in him, but he accomplished more, perhaps, 
in the way of legislation than any of them. Wherefore? Be- 
cause he was conservative in all things, extreme in nothing; 



Address of Mr. CI (irk, oj Missouri i 20 

conciliatory, not aggressive; kind and affable in manner; he 
took things by the smooth handle; he acted on one-hall' of a 
famous adage by speaking softly, even if he did not carry a 
big stick. In the constitution of his mind and by habit he 
was as much of a compromiser as was Henry Clay, and when 
we remember that most legislation is by compromise, we can 
readily understand his success. 

To him belonged the blessing vouchsafed to peacemakers in 
the Sermon on the Mount. His country owes him much, because 
through his conciliatory tactics many valuable laws were 
placed upon the statute books. His party owes him more, 
because, by gentleness and skill, by patience and forbearance, he 
composed many quarrels and feuds within the political family 
to which he belonged and which, if not composed, might have 
rent the party in twain. It is said that his constituents will 
erect monuments to his memory in both Iowa and the city of 
Washington. He is well entitled to both. He served them well, 
and they honor themselves in honoring him. In this beautiful 
capital of a mighty nation there are too many statues of soldiers 
and too few statues of statesmen; for " Peace hath her victories 
no less renowned than war." 

Iowa has always been rich in public men. She has ever had 
and now has one of the strongest delegations in House and 
Senate. She has given to the service of the Republic many 
soldiers, jurists, orators, and statesmen. It is no exaggeration, 
no flattery, to say that of them all Senator William Boyd 
Allison achieved the widest and most enduring fame. 
78135 — S. !)•"■ 766, 60 1 9 



130 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Cannon, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: In the hurry and press of business incident (o 
the closing hours of the short session of Congress I have had 
no opportunity to prepare, as I should like to have done, a 
fitting eulogy on the life, work, and character of Senator Alli- 
son; and yet I cannot allow the occasion to pass without paying 
some tribute, however feeble and inadequate it may be, to his 
memory. 

1 became a Member of the House of Representatives about 
the time when Senatoi A.LLISON was transferred from service 
in the House to the Senate of the United States, Before I had 
the honor of serving in the House I knew him by reputation, as 
tin people generally in the Republic knew him. It was eight 
years after the commencement of my service in the House 
before 1 came in contact with him in the consideration of the 
details of legislation. That contact came in the conference 
room, in the process of settling disagreements between the 
House and the Senate in connection with the enactment of the 
great appropriation bills, as well as legislation of a general 
character. Thus for twenty-eight years, I may say, during 
every session of Congress I met him and grew to be very well 
acquainted with him. 

During a period of service somewhat more extended than the 
usual length of service of a Member of the House of Representa- 
tives, I have found no man better equipped as a legislator than 
Senator ALLISON, and few so well equipped. He brought to the 
discharge of the duties of his high office the best kind of sense — 
great common sense. 



Address of Mr. Cannon, o) Illinois [31 

We hear a great deal about common sense. Sometimes oul 
in Missouri and Illinois we use the term "horse sense" when we 
mean common sense. Then we talk about men of extraordinary 
ability — geniuses. The man of uncommon sense is very un- 
common, and we all know that men of uncommon sense some 
times have not much of common sense. The common sense 
with which Senator ALLISON was endowed might well be called 
"uncommon common sense," an attribute which, in my judg- 
ment, is better than genius. 

A man of good, sound judgment, and possessing a well- 
balanced mind, I think Senator ALLISON rendered to the Repub- 
lic more valuable service than perhaps any other man who 
served in either House or Senate during his long career. 

Most people are born and live and die without making them- 
selves amenable to the penal code. A great many nun are 
called honest because they do not go outside the letter of t In- 
law, because they are not grafters, because they do not use 
their positions in public or private life for getting something 
without rendering an equivalent. But there is a higher ;^i :i<U- 
of honesty than mere material honesty, and that is intellectual 
honesty, and when you say that a man is intellectually honest, 
in my judgment, you give him the highest possible praise. 
Senator Allison not only had integrity in the ordinary sense 
of the word, but he was intellectually honest 

Men in public life who do valuable work in many instances do 
not receive credit for it. I have known mam eases where nun 
as members of commissions and committees have spent davs, 
weeks, and months working with great industry and with rare 
ripe judgment for the public weal, contributing from their 
knowledge and experience toward correct legislation, without 
one in ten thousand of the people of the great Republic knowing 
or appreciating their labors. 



132 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Perchance some man with far less equipment for the public 
service, without knowledge as to what he is talking about, may 
by accident or design coin a catchy phrase; it goes into the 
record, gets a headline in the daily press, and lo and behold, 
for the day that man attracts attention; whereas the men who 
are in fact responsible for legislation and the shaping of policies 
destined to affect every hearthstone in the country frequently 
are never heard of. 

Senator Allison, of course, was heard of and was well known ; 
but I have no hesitation in saying that the full value of the 
service he contributed to the Republic, compared with that 
which brought him into public notice, is not known by 1 per 
cent of the people. 

After all, I do not complain that such is often the case. He, 
if living, would not complain of it. You recollect that the 
Master, when calling for disciples said unto a certain man, 
Follow me," who replied, "Lord, suffer me fust to go and 
bury my father." But Jesus said unto him, "Follow me, and 
let the dead bury their dead." So it has been through the 
history of the race. 

Now and then a man, perhaps a great warrior, sometimes a 
great statesman, attracts the attention of the historian, and may 
dwell in history according to his real or supposed merit for a 
generation or two generations or possibly a hundred years; 
whereas hundreds of his colaboreis may be forgotten long 
before one generation has passed by 1 do not complain of this 
History can not record the acts of every citizen who performs 
service for the Republic. There would be no place to store the 
books that would have to be written to make such a record. 
Therefore, in my judgment, the men who in private life or in 
public life, by industry and fidelity and the exercise of good 
judgment in the public service, have made their contributions to 
the welfare of the nation and the civilization must understand 



Address of Mr. Cannon, of Illinois i 53 

that, save in the rarely exceptional eases, when they cross over, 
they will be forgotten So be it. Such men have the gratifica- 
tion of their own approval and that of their immediate friends, 
and the gratification of knowing that they have labored to bring 
about better conditions; and they must be contenl with the con- 
sciousness that they have wrought to the best of their ability, 
and made their contributions to the present and the future good. 
To this class of men belonged Senator ALLISON. In a Ion- 
association with him in the conference room and elsewhere, I 
have never known him to try to play to the galleries. 1 have 
known him when there had been conference after conference 
over contested points and disagreement after disagreement 
quietlv to smooth awav the differences and effect a compromise. 
He rarely wore the lion's skin; and vet upon occasions he 
demonstrated that he had red corpuscles in his blood, and could 
fight if necessary With the lion's skin ready to be donned, as 
it rarely was with him, for he was not the type of man to employ 
brute strength, he would use the arts of diplomacy to work out 
results. 

Several times the State of Senator ALLISON presented his 
name to the national conventions of his party lor President. 
All the efforts made by his friends to that end failed; but I 
doubt if their success would have contributed anything to 
Senator Allison's reputation as a statesman. 

One of his friends years ago complained thai ALLISON did not 
help himself in his ambition by a show of fight 1>\ some dra- 
matic episode that would have appealed to the hero worshipping 
instinct in humanity. He said: 

If Allison had only knocked some in. 111 down and kicked him some- 
time, lie would have been President. 

Perhaps that is so, but I am glad such an incident was nevei 

recorded. It would not have been in harmony with Allison's 

character. He was not that kind of a man. He did not suffer 

his passion to get the better of his judgment. He was ever 



M4 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

master of himself, and in that way became the leader of men of 
judgment and character, and it requires a great man to lead by 
judgment rathei than by appeals to the imagination His 
strength was not in passion, nor even in the semblance of pas 
sion. He was not an actor, and had no histrionic power Ik- 
was a quiet worker, a counselor, and he was ever ready to 
aid and put forward others for the dramatic work, while he 
remained in the background, giving the quiet influence that 
aided the actors to make the best appearance on the stage 

As President, Allison would have been wise, ami his admin 
istration would have represented the best spirit of the times; 
but he could not, even in that great place, have accomplished 
so much for tin- countr) as he did in the Senate, where he 
worked quietly and effectively to shape legislation to the best 
interests of the whole people. 

He had little of that pride of opinion which make men insisl 
ent upon their own wa\ of doing things and fearful of what is 
called ' inconsistency." He came into public life called a free 
trader," but for many years was oik- of the stanch defenders of 
protection He was a gold-standard man, and vet introduced 
the Bland -Allison silver -purchase bill He was opposed to 
expansion, and vet was one of the ablest defenders of the Phil- 
ippine policy of President McKinley and President Roosevelt. 
He saw his first duty as a patriotic servant of the people and ac- 
cepted, the will of the majority as the voice of command, and he 
was ever read) to do the most patriotic service of the time of 
action, regardless as to whether it fitted into his preconceived 
ideas on the particular phase of a great question He was not 
an opportunist, seeking to ride the waves of public opinion; but 
when conditions were created, he was ready to do the most 
patriotic service required to bring about results. 

Senator Allison did not compromise, he harmonized. He 
did not surrender principles. He looked at both sides of a ques- 



Address of Mr. Cannon, 0} Illinois 135 

tioii to find the best part of both contentions. He did not can 

for technicalities or names, but held to great principles with 
tenacity and a discriminating intelligence rare in political de 
bate, where great questions are so often discussed in passion 
rather than with sober judgment He never took the position 
that he alone could be right and all his associates wrong; that 
is the attribute of the barbarian 

Allison" represented the highest type of civilization, the 
harmonizing of differences among nun to make possible a 
Government where the will of the majority is the highest law 
of the land. 

He has crossed over, and another whom I have in mind has 
crossed over; and therefore there can be nothing improper in 
what 1 am about to relate: On one occasion, after he had 
struggled in bringing his brother Senators to assent to a certain 
important provision which the House was insisting on, one of 
his colleagues on the conference committee said: 

Senator do you believe that so-and-so will obstruct an agreement "" 
this conference report 1 It is now the last night of the session, and lie has 
the power to defeat it 
Oh, no- 
Said Senator Allison, in his quiet way— 

I have already fixed that, ! have yielded to his request, and he is to 
have time to show the wasdom of the compromise 

The compromise was made and the legislation was hail 

I have already spoken longer than I anticipated, though there 

is much more 1 could say. He gave the best that was in him to 

the perpetuation of sound policies for the welfare of the Nation, 

and devotedly and faithfully represented his State Iowa is 

fortunate to-day in the Representatives she has in Congress, as 

the gentleman from Missouri has well said, and she will I" 11: 

deed fortunate if, in the future, she can be as well represented 

in both House and Senate as she has been in the past and is 

to-day. 



136 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa 

Mr. Chairman, Senator Allison, for more than half a century 
as a citizen of Iowa, endeared himself to all by his courtesy, his 
ability, and devotion to the duties of high station. In his 
death the State lost her most distinguished son and the nation 
one of her ablest and most trusted leaders. 

My acquaintance with Senator ALLISON practically began 
when I came to Congress as the result of the election of 1890. 
I knew him before that as a great Senator, as a public servant 
in whom the people of the State had absolute confidence, but I 
have alwavs felt that my real acquaintance with and knowledge 
of the man began with the relationship which comes to those 
win 1 are working in harmony in the great legislative body of 
the Senate and the House. 

As a new Member of Congress, 1 went to him for advice and 
counsel, and never in vain. Generous, considerate, kind, and 
wise, he helped every one of his colleagues who needed his 
assistance. To my mind a misconception, even in his own 
State, has grown up in regard to his characteristics and the 
habits of his mind One of my colleagues earlier in to-day's 
proceedings referred Id the fact that he was called and thought 
of by certain men as without firmness; in other words, accusing 
him of being a "trimmer.'' 

After an intimate acquaintance with Senator Allison for the 
lasi eighteen years, I want to say that that charge against him 
is absolutely without foundation. He accomplished great re- 
sults without the blare of trumpets and sounding of drums; 
he accomplished greater results than would have been possible 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa 137 

if he had gone at the business he sought to accomplish by first 
arousing antagonism. He served his country not only during 
the time and stress of the civil war in this House, but he served 
his country in the Senate of the United States when great prob- 
lems affecting the credit of the nation were involved, and in 
place of antagonizing in trying to accomplish what we all now 
agree upon without regard to party as being right, he sought 
to avert the danger of impairment of the credit, depreciating 
the currency, by compromise that avoided an infinitely worse 
condition of affairs than those brought about through his 
efforts. 

I think the great Senator from Iowa, by his ability to man 
age and harmonize and bring together conflicting interests, pel 
formed service to his Nation that has not been excelled in all 
the vears of its past. Without his guidance the Republic would 
have gone upon dangerous rocks. 

The first time I met Senator ALLISON was during his first 
canvass for the Senate of the United States, He was defeated 
in that campaign. Another distinguished Iowan was selected. 
In the next vacancy he was again a candidate, and successfully . 
and from that day on during his political life Senator ALLISON 
never was compelled to attend a session of the legislature in 
order to secure his reelection. The people of Iowa saw in thai 
His work in the House had given a broad foundation on which 
he could build his future political activity. His work in the 
Senate commended itself to the people of his State so that he 
stood without a rival in their affections During all tin 
leadership his voice was always lor harmony anion- his asso 
ciates and for justice to all the people. 

It is a pathetic figure that 1 recall to-day of only a year ago 
when, stricken with disease, he was attending to the duties of 
his high office and the discharge of the responsibility of his 



138 Monona/ Addresses: William B. Allison 

great leadership in the Senate with the idea among some that 
the people of Iowa were tired of his services. Without com- 
plaint and without a moment's hesitation he pursued the even 
tenor of his way, discharging with great ability all the duties 
of his commanding place in the Senate When doubt existed 
on some lines of legislation— the Congress and the Executive 
not in full harmony — the great Senator from Iowa pointed the 
way to harmony and success. 

Nothing could induce him to desert his post in the Senate of 
the United States. Nothing could induce him to say a word 
of criticism against any member of his party in his State. He 
toiled on here until the very day of the adjournment, in the 
early part of June; and I know it is a gratification to every 
citizen of our great State, without regard to party, without re- 
gard to faction, that the people of that great State of the West, 
by a majority vote, gave him a certificate of confidence that was 
the greatest comfort to him in the last months of his life. 

Mr. Speaker, Senator Au.isox lived for fifty years in the city 
of Dubuque. Senator Allison lived for half a century in the 
State of Iowa. When he was called to pass to the other side, 
t lie people of the State and the people of his city, in the outpour- 
in- of mourners at his grave, gave absolute proof that he stood 
foremost in their affection, not only as a statesman, but as a 



man. 



lie had peculiar ability as a statesman; lie had most winning 
qualities as a man; and it seems to me that when you balance 
up his great life, a life of public service far beyond what is 
usually given, (hat you must, when you see the affection for 
him which was held by the people of Dubuque, many of whom 
had known him from their infancy to their manhood and woman- 
hood; when you see that great outpouring of people, regardless 
of party, regardless of faction, all bearing tribute of their love 



Address of Mr. Hit!/, oj Iowa 139 

at his last resting place in the cemetery of that city of his choice, 
overlooking the majestic Mississippi River, near his old friend 
and associate, Colonel Henderson; when you see this yoi 
say, "Here was a man." 

And it does seem to me, Mr. Speaker, that in the estimate of 
his life, in the estimate of what he has done, more time musl 
elapse before a true and just estimate can be made. We are too 
near to many of the great measures he fought to enact into law; 
but in the lapse of years the students of history will see that 
this unpretentious Senator from Iowa, this great Senator from 
Iowa, this constructive statesman of the United Stales, will 
take his place among the great public servants of the Republic, 
and his name will be revered more and more by all students of 
our political history as the years go by. That those who come 
after him may be as conspicuous in ability, as strong in leadei 
ship, as true to conviction, is the earnest hope of all citizens of 
our great State. 



140 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Birdsall, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: Hon. William Boyd Allison was born on a 
farm mar Perry, Wayne County, Ohio, March 2, 1829, and 
died at his home in Dubuque, Iowa, August 4, 1908. His child- 
hood days were spent like those of other country boys, in labor 
upon the farm and in attendance upon the district school. He 
then attended Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa., and the 
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio In 1850 he began 
the study of law at Wooster, Ohio, and the following year was 
admitted to the Wayne County bar. 

The commencement of his political career was as a delegate 
to the Ohio state convention in 1856, which convention sup- 
ported Fremont for the Presidency. 

In 1857 he came west to Iowa and located at Dubuque, im- 
mediately entering upon the practice of his profession, in which 
he continued actively engaged until elected to Congress. He 
was an able lawyer, and the published records of the Iowa 
courts attest the fact that he was engaged as counsel in many 
important cases. Mr. Allison had, however, a natural apti- 
tude for politics, and soon established himself in the confidence 
not only of the people of his immediate community, but of the 
State at large. In i860 he was sent lis a delegate to the na- 
tional Republican convention ai Chicago, was one of the secre- 
taries of that convention, and aided in the nomination of 
Lincoln for the Presidency 

Allison was an early friend of Hon. Samuel J. Kirkwood, the 
war governor of Iowa, and upon the breaking out of the civil 
war was appointed a member of his staff and rendered valuable 



Address of Mr. Birds all, of Iowa 141 

service in recruiting and enlisting a regiment in northeastern 
Iowa for the war. In 1862 he was elected to Congress and 
served by successive terms until March 4, 1871, declinin 
election. He was promptly elected to the Senate of the United 
States for the term commencing March 4, 187,3, and served con- 
tinuously in that body until his death, on August 4. 1908. 

In June, 1908, he received the indorsement of the Republican 
party of Iowa for reelection as his own successor for the term 
commencing March 4, 1909. 

His term of service in the Congress of the United States is 
exceeded by that of but one other man in the history of our 
Nation, and his term of continuous service in the Senate ex 
ceeds that of any other man who ever served in that great body. 

What a period in American history, my colleagues, is covered 
by his service here and in the Senate. With what events and 
what names his career is indissolubly connected, and how inti- 
matelv he was associated with them. When he entered this 
House the clash of arms resounded throughout the Nation; 
brother was battling with brother in internecine conflict; the 
Constitution was being sorely tried by the convulsions of a 
Nation engaged in purifying itself. He saw that Nation re- 
deemed, the Constitution sustained and made supreme in the 
land. He lived to see the clouds of error pass away, the mists 
of prejudice and passion dissipated. He lived to see a govern 
ment of the people, this monument to liberty and human free- 
dom, wrought out through so much blood and treasure, builded 
upon a safe and secure foundation among the nations of the 
earth. 

He helped to adorn the entablatures of that monument with 
the best fruits of peace and national progress, and to transmit 
it to posterity unstained and undimmed, carved with an 
imperishable record of valor and achievement. 



i_p Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

In this House he was the colleague of Blaine, Stevens, and 
Garfield. In the Senate, of Bayard of Delaware, Logan of Illi- 
nois, Morton of Indiana, Ingalls of Kansas, Hamlin of Maine, 
Conkling of New York, Sherman and Thurman of Ohio, Cam- 
eron of Pennsylvania, Kdmunds and Morrill of Vermont, Howe 
of Wisconsin, and other great men whose names adorn our 
history for the past thirty-five years. 

Thrice offered Cabinet positions, he thrice refused, preferring 
to remain in the Senate and in the service of that great State 
whose people had learned his worth and loved and honored him. 

lie was the trusted counselor of Presidents and Cabinets 
from Lincoln to Roosevelt. No narrow system sunk him to the 
vulgar level of the politician. No domestic difficulties, no 
domestic weakness, surrounded him; but, aloof from the sordid 
occurrences of life, his sole ambition was the welfare ot his 
country, and to this end he gave a lifetime of unremitting toil, 
lie was a master of tact, and succeeded in subduing conflictsin 
the Senate when genius and talent failed. 

lie was for peace, but never at the sacrifice of principle. A 
leader in his party, seeking no self advancement , his counsels 
were respected and his advice usually followed. He was the 
peaceful Warwick of American politics. 

The handiwork and braiuwork of Senator ALLISON, found run- 
ning through the statutes of the past forty-five wars, attest his 
industry and capacity as a statesman and legislator. Our laws 
are but a reflex of the policy and manners of the age in which 
we live, and furnish the only reliable index to posterity of our 
achievements. The Tables of the Hebrew law, the Institutes 
of Menu, the Code of Justinian and that of Napoleon alike, 
furnish but a reflection of the genius, habits, civilization, and 
morals of a people. So the past forty-live years of American 
progress, the habits and morals of our people, will be reflected 
in the statutes of its lawmakers 



Address oj Mr Birdsall, oj Iowa 143 

He was a moderate in legislation, but neither a laggard nor 
obstructionist. He loved the Constitution and believed it the 
ark of our safetv, but welcomed reforms along anv lines that 
could be safely pursued within the limits of our fundamental 
law. He welcomed progress, but also held fast to that which 
had been found sound and safe in governmental action and had 
little patience for those who wanted to see if the machine would 
run when broken. 

Mr. Speaker, as a nation we are set upon a hill in sight of 
all the other nations of the earth. We are working out lure an 
experiment in self-government upon a scale never before at 
tempted anywhere on earth. Ninety millions of people now — 
200,000,000 at the close of the present century — scattered over 
an area as large as all Europe, with a climate and with inter 
ests as diversified as are those of England and Russia, Norway 
and Spain, it is for our posterity to determine whether this 
vast population will hold together under the form of a republic 
or whether centralization will get the better through actual or 
disguised monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than 
permanent bureaucracy, and as our great cities increase in 
population the specter of want and the gaunt figure of famine 
will stalk through the land and socialism and communism claim 
to be heard. Truly, America has a great future before her — 
great in care, great in toil, great in responsibility, great in true 
glory — if she be guided in wisdom and righteousness, great in 
shame if she fail. 

Well for us and our posterity if men of the ALLISON mold 
shall shape our destiny as a nation and are on guard to pilol 
the "ship ot state.' 

Senator Allison was a gentleman of tin- eld school, a phi 
losopher of the new school, with the manners of Chesterfield 
and the learning of Parr, and combined with it all the gentleness 
and modestv of a woman. He was a worker. 



144 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

He honored toil and dignified labor because he knew that 
within its warp and woof was contained the destiny of mankind. . 
He had received the poor man's heritage, "Strong hands and a 
still hardier spirit.'' 

Reared upon a farm, it was there, amid the fragrance of the 
clover blossom and the perfume of a thousand flowers, where 
reflection went hand in hand with honest toil, that were laid 
those habits of industry that became the chief characteristic 
of his after life. By the light of the faggot he commenced in 
early life to store his mind with useful knowledge and in all 
his years kept garnering to that fund until his mind became a 
vast storehouse of information useful to his fellow-men. 

The faculty of his mind for detail seemed infinite, and I believe 
it can truthfully be said that no other man in the public life 
of the nation, either past or present, possessed so much knowl- 
edge of the intricate details of government. An event, a 
fad . a figure once impressed upon his memory seemed to be 
indelible and always capable of recall at his command, enabling 
him, though not an eloquent man, to express gigantic sentiments 
of instructive wisdom. 

Mr. Speaker, the ancients deified their great men by dividing 
the stars into constellations named for them, that their memo- 
ries might ever be before them; later pyramids and obelisks 
were built for the same purpose. Now monuments and com- 
memorative tablets are erected to perpetuate the memory of the 
dead; but the greatest monument to any man is that builded 
by his own hands and engraven on the hearts of the people. 

Three generations of men in the State of Iowa have known 
and loved Senator Allison, and his name and memory are 
engraven on the hearts of our people. 

( In the dav when his remains were taken to their final resting 
place his home city was in mourning; business suits were hung 



Address of Mr. Birdsall, oj Iowa 145 

in lliL- closet; not a wheel in a factory stirred; not an office 01 
place of business opened its doors. Thousands of people lined 
the way from his home to the cemetery, and with bowed heads 
attested their regard for a neighbor and respect to his ashes, 
while throughout our entire State a great and grateful people, 
their pulse beating in mournful unison, paid reverential homage 
to our illustrious dead. 

The record of his life will furnish an inspiration to youth, 
a lesson to age. A public life unsullied, a private life stainless 
as the stars, for he can say unto his heavenly friend, "I have 
kept unfringed my nature's law; the only written chart thou 
gavest me to guide me I have steered by to the end.'' 

Amid the vicissitudes, allurements, and temptations of public 
life he demonstrated "that even in a palace life may be led 
well." 

He died in the fullness of his years, ripe for the sickle, and 
ready for the Reaper. The world is better for his having li\ ed ; 
heaven will he richer for his having died. 

With what further forms shall the great Law of change and pi 
clothe its workings, gently so have good men taught into the new, the 
eternal flow of things, like a peaceful river of the fields of heaven shall 
journey onward in perpetual peace. 

78135 — S. Doc. 766, 60-j 10 



146 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Haugen, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: Time will not now permit me to say all that I 
would like to say of the life, the services, and character of this 
great, grand, and noble man; but Senator Allison's public 
and private life, as well as the character and magnitude of his 
public work, have been so eloquently and well described by his 
friends, both in the Senate and House, that I will not particu- 
larize as to his eight years of service in the House and thirty-five 
years in the Senate, but will confine myself to a brief but sincere 
and loving tribute to his memory; not as a formal duty, but as 
a heartfelt tribute of affection -to speak of him as I knew him; 
to speak the truth as Ik- would have one speak of him. Know- 
ing him intimately, and admiring him as 1 did. and having 
studied his grand life and character, I know that if he could 
have a voice as to the character of this day's exercises, with his 
sense of propriety, his high regard for truth, honor, modesty, 
dignity, and integrity, he would not countenance false praise 
or desire that he be pictured in other than true colors. 

With a life so bright, a character so pure, so many grand and 
noble qualities manifest in every walk of his life, both private 
and public, we have sufficient material to draw from to paint 
the most beautiful picture of a true man imaginable. I got to 
know him well, and the better I knew him the more I adored 
him — the more 1 loved and felt for him. 

I first met Senator Allison about thim years ago. He had 
tin usual experience of men in polities, and especially of men 
who do great things well. He was then misrepresented, ma- 
ligned, and made the target for criticism, abuse, slander, and 



Address of Mr. Haugen, of Iowa 147 

libel invented by malicious enemies; but his (inward and up- 
ward inarch was not to be impeded; he could not be despaired, 
nor could his usefulness be destroyed. Violent and unjust criti- 
cism was entirely ignored and disregarded; he steadily worked 
along the lines of duty as he saw it; misconception and misrep- 
resentation of- his purposes vanished; year by year he became 
stronger; the whole country came to understand that he was a 
great man and worthy of the most implicit confidence. Nol 
withstanding the fact that he was thus maligned, misrepre 
sented, and misunderstood, his noble character, his patriotic 
and faithful services endeared him to his countrymen and gave 
him a most prominent place of honor, not only in our country's 
history, but in the hearts of the American people as a states 
man, a citizen of the highest type of character, and as a pure, 
grand man. He was held in most exceptional esteem and admi- 
ration by not only the people of his own great State, but his 
popularity went far beyond the borders of his own State and 
country to remote parts of the world. 

Twelve vears ago, when a member of our state legislature, 
when Senator Allison came up for reelection to the United 
States Senate, and was also prominently mentioned for Presi 
dent of the United States, I first became intimately acquainted 
with him. He was then at the zenith of his power, both men- 
tally and physically. 

Like most great men. Senator Allison was plain, simple, 
unassuming, unpretentious, and unselfish. "Simplicity belongs 
to greatness." 

He was a thorough, kind, and obliging gentleman, of ability, 
purity, integrity, and the highest type of character; always 
genial, kind, cheerv. generous, patient, considerate, and helpful 
to others. He always had a kind word for all, and was always 
readv to lend a helping hand, not for selfish purposes, but that 



1 4<s Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

he might the better serve them; not aggressive or sentimental 
in his methods, but always calm, patient, and industrious, with 
a clear, broad mind, good judgment, and keen vision, ever seek- 
ing to secure the best practical results. His natural talent, his 
good common sense; yes, his uncommon good common sense 
and intelligent honesty, so correctly described and beautifully 
pictured by the Speaker; his large store of knowledge of the 
needs and resources of this Government, acquired during his 
long term of service in the Senate, prepared by eight years in 
the House of Representatives; his good judgment; his never 
questioning integrity; his unswerving fidelity to public interests; 
his unfaltering faith and rectitude of purpose, dominated by 
the noblest and loftiest ideals; his linn determination to do 
justice and right ; and. above all things, his abiding devotion to 
truthfulness, always shunning deceit, conceit, and cunning prac- 
tices, made him an unusually popular and valuable servant to 
Ins country. 

He was blessed with extraordinary intelligence, endurance. 
and foresight; a wonderful intuition and powers of comprehen- 
sion; a most pleasing personality and an agreeable voice. Sen- 
ator ALLISON, with so many grand virtues assembled, coupled 
with his never resisting charm of personality, became an acknowl- 
edged authority and an accepted leader. With his ripened 
experience, naturally the Senate and country looked to him for 
guidance and as an adviser and leader. As stated by one of his 
colleagues. "He was to the Senate that of a trusted pilot to 
a ship." He was for years one of the foremost Americans and 
statesmen, and Ins work and achievements left an indelible im- 
pression upon his countrymen, and history will give him a place 
in the front rank of the statesmen and citizens of his time. 

As a statesman, Mr. ALLISON, in main respects, had no 
superior. His great work was largely in the Committees on 



Address of Mr. Haugen, of Iowa 149 

Appropriations and Finance, but his work and influence were 
not confined to measures coming before those two great com- 
mit lees. He gave every question of importance careful and 
thoughtful consideration, which gave him a most comprehensive 
knowledge of national and international affairs and a thorough 
understanding of every important question that arose, and he 
always had at his command the detail and historv of all impor 
tant matters which led up to the issue. He was resourceful, ever 
ready to yield to better reason when it was made manifest ; a man 
with a clear and practical mind, a remarkable degree of genius 
and common sense, honest in thought and purpose, honest with 
the world, honest with himself, true to his neighbors and friends, 
a most attractive personality, with warm and glorious impulses, 
and most delightful in his companionship, all of which drew his 
friends close to him. 

Though an acknowledged leader — a place and power achie\ 1 d 
not by accident, but by his genius and deeds well done, the vir- 
tue of honor, truth, labor, and devotion to duty — he never sought 
distinction by advertising himself or by pushing himself ahead. 
Apparently he was unconscious of his power, standing, and posi- 
tion. He was not one of those who passed himself to the front 
in active debate; his usually good common sense and his knowl- 
edge of human nature and men enabled him to determine when 
and how to move, and it was generally in the final stages of the 
settlement of complex and difficult questions that his master art 
in construction and conciliation was applied with skill and effect , 
and that in the end his words and suggestions determined the 
fate of the question. 

While he possessed to a full degree the power of great initiative, 
and was essentially a creator, not a destroyer, yet Ins mastei 
art was conciliation. He sought no compromise with wrong. 
What was right was right; what was wrong «;is wrong. !!' 



i,sp Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

occupied no middle ground when the question of right and 
wrong was involved. He was a total stranger to the art of 
demagogy and duplicity. He was not an orator. His life work 
was not that of framing beautiful sentences, yet he was a 
speaker of uncommon power. His fancy was not rhetoric or 
to become an orator; he cared little for eloquence. He was a 
student; his aim was to get at facts, to fully understand and 
solve conscientiously and in a practical manner all questions 
with which he had to deal. He was one of the clearest, cleanest, 
and soundest minded of men, and with his ripened knowledge 
little attention was given to his speeches in advance, but they 
were shaped and fashioned as he delivered them. With his 
thorough knowledge of all questions, without previous prepara- 
tion, he would at times speak for hours with great energy and 
fluency, mastering the subjects discussed with plain but forceful 
and orderly arranged language; and his able and logical pres- 
entation of facts and lucidity of utterances always received 
sympathetic attention, and his speeches proved most effective. 
He was a good politician as well as a great statesman; he 
had a good memory for names and incidents. Prominent and 
influential as he was, naturally his advice and counsel was 
sought in determining political policies as well as in shaping 
legislation of national and international importance. His 
advice, counsel, and help were not desired by politicians and 
statesmen alone, but many people in all walks of life were bene- 
fited by it. As Carrie Harrison, an intimate friend of his, 
writes me: 

Many and many a time at his home his reception hall was crowded with 
people. Women in tear- beseeched his advice and help as they would that 
of a father or priest, and he considered their petitions as a father would 
those of his own children. 

And as has been referred to here to-day, he was to the Iowa 

delegation like a father. He filled a great place among the 



Address 0} Mr. Haugen, of Iowa 151 

greatest men of his time. His death seemed a most unusual 
public loss. From .Senator Allison's life and character there 
are many lessons we may learn Among the choicest memories, 
those that I will forever cherish, are his confidence and uninter- 
rupted friendship, his noble life and character, and his deeds 
well done. 

That he was respected, loved, and mourned by all classes in 
his country; that his honesty, character, patriotism, loyalty, 
and greatness were recognized, was fully demonstrated at his 
funeral at Dubuque, Iowa; and evidences of the regard and 
warm friendship entertained by his countrymen were made 
manifest by the multitude of people at his bier, coming not 
only from friends and neighbors in his home" city and State, 
but from the remote parts of the whole country, there to pay 
their last sad tribute of love and to express a dee]) sense of 
bereavement. 



152 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Conner, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: The death of a prominent citizen inevitably 

results in bringing his life before the bar of public opinion for 
criticism and judgment. This is especially true as to one who 
for many years has been a conspicuous actor in the affairs of 
his country. 

The estimate which the people form of a public man while 
living is less reliable than after his death. During his life his 
enemies are apt to minimize his virtues and his friends to mag- 
nify them; but after his death the world calmly and dispas- 
sionately weighs both the good and evil in his life and judges 
him fairly and impartially. 

Fortunate, indeed, is the man who, after a long public career, 
when overtaken by death, has it universally said of him that 
his life made the world richer, and his death made it poorer. 

Senator Ai.i.im in was a distinguished citizen of the Republic, 
and while in a sense he belonged to the State of Iowa, because 
his home was there and from there he bore his commission. 
yet in a broader sense he belonged to the Nation. 

For almost half a century prior to his death he was a national 
character, giving his time and services for the benefit of the 
whole country. While the State of Iowa is proud to claim him 
as her son. she recognizes the merit of the claim that he belonged 
to the Nation at large. 

Iowa has produced many distinguished men and is proud of 
their achievements, but comparing them with Senator Allison, 
it is safe to assert that from the standpoint of statesmanship 



Address of Mr. Conner, 0} Iowa 153 

and legislative- ability, not one of them was his equal, and ii is 
doubtful if the Nation during his time produced his superior. 

Senator Ai.i.isi >.\'s usefulness to his country and his capacity 
to serve it have not up to this date been fully appreciated. 
Time, however, will bring his splendid qualities as a statesman 
and lawmaker to be fully recognized. 

The elements in him which contributed to his success were 
those which are generally found in great characters. He was 
possessed of a strong mentality, which enabled him to readily 
grasp and solve the great problems which from time to time 
have presented themselves during the last fifty years. 

He was honest from principle and habit, and not as a matter 
of policy. No one ever came in contact with him with, mi being 
impressed with his good faith and sincerity. His habits of 
industry were known to everyone familiar with his life. Not 
one of his colleagues in Congress kept in closer touch with the 
details of legislation, and no one more assiduouslv perused the 
daily Congressional Record for the purpose of keeping posted 
on pending legislation. 

It was because of these facts that his colleagues leaned upon 
him and trusted him to guide them in important matters of 
legislation. It was not an infrequent occurrence, when com- 
plicated matters were pending in the Senate, for Senator 
Allison, by a timely suggestion, to solve the difficulties which 
confronted that body and to bring about legislation of a 
wholesome character. 

He was universally courteous in his demeanor, always respect 
ful in his treatment of those with whom he came in contact. 
The genial smile which lighted up his face when in conversation 
won for him the lasting friendship of those who met him. 

It is a great compliment to the State of Iowa to have it said 
that the uninterrupted service of Senator ALLISON in tin- Senate 



is; Memorial Addresses: William B.Allison 

of the United States was longer than that of any other man, 
and a still greater compliment to have it said that his services 
were of greater value to his country than those of any other man. 
His life should be an example for the young men of the country, 
and we will all do well to emulate the virtues of this wise and 
illustrious statesman. 



Address of Mr. Hubbard, of Iowa 155 



Address of Mr. Hubbard, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: We have just commemorated the birthday of 
Lincoln. To-morrow we recall with gratitude the name of 
Washington. The very greatness of these heroes has removed 
them, in a measure, from the common air, and thev are become 
revered and symbolic names, typifying the making and saving 
of the Union. 

We, friends, are assembled here to fondly recall the face and 
memory of a great man, once our friend, so newly gone that his 
touch and smile are still familiar, his voice still lingers. I can 
not analyze with weight and balance the elements that made 
Senator Allison great. He himself, I have been told, looked 
back half humorously, half in wonder, at the career which had 
lifted the obscure country lawyer, starting without wealth, 
friends, or favor, to the leadership of the Senate, to an untitled 
premiership in nearly every administration for forty years. To 
a friend he spoke of this with modest pride and patriotic wis- 
dom. To him his life was but another proof of the creative 
power of free institutions, taking our native clay and from it 
making and shaping men as men are needed. He said that the 
glory and safety of the Republic is that it is not governed by 
great men, but by common men, whom it raises to the heights 
of sacrifice, wisdom, and power, as the exigencv requires. 

My mind refuses to dwell upon his greatness. I mark him 
not in this hour, when I need but close mv eyes to set- his grave, 
by the laws he made, by his long years of distinguished public 
service. But tears are near and lips tremble when 1 see 1I1 • 
indwelling spirit of the man. How gentle and patient that 



[56 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

kindly wisdom, which made yon your own adviser, you scarcely 
knew how. How friendly and unobtrusive the counsel — felt 
rather than heard. His very presence ended strife and appeased 
contention. 

I can see him now as he greeted your coming with out- 
stretched hand, with welcoming smile, with never-failing, heart- 
felt courtesy. His hand shall clasp our hand never again, his 
smile never more shall light our way; his memory shall dwell 
with us enduringly. 

I!<: is at rest. Ik- dwells m peace. Peace, perfect peace he 
his. 



Address of Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 157 



Address of Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: It was my good fortune to be associated with 
Senator William Boyd Allison in close, confidential relations 
for a period of six years. That association gave me an unusual 
opportunity to observe his life and character and to measure 
the importance of his service to the people and to the Nation. 
And if what I have to say of this distinguished statesman shall 
exceed in length the tributes usually paid on occasions of this 
kind, I ask the indulgence and the pardon of the House, because 
my words are prompted by a sincere appreciation of his high 
and unselfish public service and a deep and abiding affection 
for the man. 

His record as a statesman and public servant will probably 
never be surpassed. It was a service not simply remarkable 
because of its length, but even more remarkable because' of its 
importance. He entered this House as a Member when the 
Union was shattered by secession and the Xation in the throes 
of civil war; and an appreciative constituency kept him here lot- 
four terms and then promoted him to the Senate, where he 
served for a longer period than any man in the history of the 
Republic. Six successive times did the legislature of our State 
choose him for this high station, and only a few weeks before 
his death the grateful people of Iowa, by a decisive majority in 
a direct primary, renewed his commission for six years more. 

To review the public career of Senator ALLISON would be to 
write the history of the Republican party from its birth to the 
present time; it would mean a review of practically all the 
important legislation enacted by Congress during tin- pas! fort) - 



i s s Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

five years. The history of those years is without a parallel in 

the annals of time; it is the brightest half century which any 
nation lias enjoyed since the dawn of civilization. The mile- 
stones which mark the progress of the Republic during that 
period are the great policies for which that party has stood: 
Free soil, free men, the Union, the payment of the debt, honest 
money, protection to American industry, internal development, 
the gold standard, the maintenance of law, and government regu 
laiion of great corporations. Under the operation of these poli- 
cies we have become the most rich and powerful Nation on 
earth, and our development is the marvel of the civilizi d world 

Senator Allison not only had an important part in shaping 
these great policies, but no man in the Senate had a larger hand 
in that more difficult and exacting task of embodying them into 
tin statute law of the land. 

( )ne writer expressed it tersely when he said that — 

He has net made as much noise as Alexander, or as much trouble as 
Julius Casar, but he lias written into the statute l».,,k- of his country more 
useful legislation than any legislator who has ever lived in this countrj 01 
in any ether government. 

His first conspicuous service to the Nation, after assisting in 
the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for President in (86o, was 
in starting the movement to permit soldiers in the field to vote 
at the election in 1862. He induced Governor Kirkwood to call 
a special session of the Iowa legislature, which passed an act 
permitting soldiers at the front to vote. The action of Iowa 
was immediately followed by other Northern States, thus in- 
suring a Congress in harmony with Lincoln's administration. 

He bore a more influential part than any other man in all 
the financial legislation from the establishment of the national 
hanking system in 1S04. onward to the resumption act of 1875, 
the coinage act of 1878, down to the gold-standard act of 1900, 
and vet, because of his unwillingness in life to claim the credit 



Address oj Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 159 

which was rightfully his due, his name is popularly linked with 
only one of these great fiscal measures — the Bland-Allison Act 
of 1878. 

We are all more or less familiar with that act, but few appre- 
ciate the far-reaching importance and the momentous conse- 
quences to our currency system which resulted from that portion 
of it drafted by Senator Allison. The Bland bill, as it passed 
the House of Representatiyes, provided for the free and unlim- 
ited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, and in this form 
went over to the Senate and was referred to the Committee on 
Finance, which then consisted of nine members — four free- 
silver men, four gold-standard men, and William B. Allison. 
A flat vote on one side meant free silver, with the result of mak- 
ing silver the single and sole standard of value; on the other 
side, a deadlock between the two Houses of Congress, with con- 
tinued agitation and uncertainty on this vital subject at a time 
when the country was greatly disturbed oyer the question. In 
this crisis in the monetary affairs Senator Ai.i.isi in came forward 
with two amendments which obviated both of these difficulties, 
saved the country from the catastrophe of unrestricted silver 
coinage, and laid the foundation for the absolute acceptance of 
the gold standard. 

In brief, these amendments provided for the limited coinage 
of silver by the Government and a conference of the nations of 
the world looking to international bimetallism. Subsequent 
events amply proved the wisdom of these amendments. Aftei 
they had been adopted by Congress, both political parties 
accepted the proposition for an international conference and 
incorporated it in their platforms down to 1S96, when the 
supreme test on the silver question was made. 

In plain, understandable English the result of these two 
amendments was, first, the plan for limited coinage on.govern- 



160 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

ment account, which strengthened the basic principle of the 
gold standard and pushed to the rear the demand for free and 
unlimited coinage of silver; and, second, the proposal for an 
international agreement removed the money question from 
partisan politics until such time as the logic of events had made 
the gold standard impregnable. 

1 need not review the fierce political battles that raged in 
two presidential campaigns over the money question. It is 
enough to say that when the lamented President McKinley, on 
March 14, 1900, affixed his signature to the gold-standard act 
and made it a law he wrote "finis" to the liveliest and most 
exciting chapter in the monetary history of the United States. 
Senator Allison had a large part in writing that law, and its 
successful operation up to this time is known to all. 

Less familiarity exists, however, with one feature of that 
law, a provision which marks a new epoch in the history of 
governmental financiering. The refunding provision of that 
law, which was drafted by Senator Allison, not only uplifted 
the standard of our national credit, but actually saved to the 
Government the enormous sum of sixteen and a half million 
dollars. The Allison refunding plan has demonstrated the 
ability of this Government to float a 2 per cent bond at par and 
to reduce the interest rate on more than one-half of its bonded 
indebtedness from 3, 4, and 5 per cent to 2 per cent. 

When the Allison refunding amendment to the gold-standard 
act was presented it was characterized by not a few prominent 
Members of Congress as "rainbow chasing," and the skepticism 
extended even to the then Secretary of the Treasury. It was 
attempting the unattainable, they said, to ask holders of gov- 
ernment bonds to surrender 4 and 5 per cent interest and accept 
2 instead; and was not at that moment England's choicest 2'i 
per cent bonds and Germany's imperial 3 per cents selling 



Address oj Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 161 

below par? Some even characterized the proposition as vision- 
ary, but its author persevered, and the amendment became a 
part of the law. 

In theory the plan seemed to be unworkable; in practice it 
demonstrated that American credit is the highest in the world. 
Under that amendment S646, 250, 150 of the public debt was 
refunded into 2 per cent bonds at a net profit to the Govern- 
ment of 516,551,037.54. Up to this time more than one-half of 
the public debt has been converted from an average of 4 per 
cent interest to 2 per cent, and if you will examine the bond 
quotations in the daily papers you will note that these 2 per 
cent bonds were quoted yesterday above par. 

This tremendous fiscal operation has gone on without the 
slightest jar to the money market and practically unbeknown 
to the public generally. 

These examples of his conspicuous service to his countrv in 
financial legislation are only two of a large number of similar 
instances, both great and small, which might be cited to show 
how and why he attained his distinction as one of the greatest 
economists and financiers in the world. That he was so re- 
garded is evidenced by the distinguished service he rendered 
as chairman of the International Monetary Conference of 1892 
at Brussels and by the invitations extended to him by Presi- 
dents Garfield and Harrison to enter their respective cabinets 
as Secretary of the Treasury. 

But equally distinguished and valuable was his service to the 
Republic in connection with the revenue and tariff laws, a 
service which by unanimous consent won for him the title of 
the "Greatest tariff expert in the nation." He possessed the 
broadest, deepest, and most comprehensive knowledge of tariff 
and governmental finance of any statesman of his time. 
78135— S. Doc. 766, 60- 2 11 



i62 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

There is no class of legislation more intricate than that 
relating to the tariff. The first consideration must be the 
broad, general effect on the economic situation. To determine 
this requires the most careful consideration of the effects to 
be produced on the various industries involved, and no general 
tariff revision is made without affecting more or less directly 
every industry in the country. Questions of prices to con- 
sumers as well as to producers, the upbuilding of commerce and 
industry, the raising of revenue, the effect on foreign and home 
markets, the relations of treaty obligations, and countless other 
considerations great and small present themselves in bewilder- 
ing confusion. 

With the preparation of every one of the hundreds of para- 
graphs in each of the dozen or more schedules of a tariff bill 
comes pressure from those directly affected. From absinthe, 
aconite, and acorns down to zaffer, Zante currants, and zinc 
there are approximately 5.000 articles included in a tariff bill, 
and every man who buys or s c lls, imports or exports, produces 
or consumes any of them has an inalienable right to be heard, 
and most of them are not backward in coming forward to 
assert it. 

Thirty-eight years' service on committees which formulate 
and perfect tariff bills made this ordeal oft-recurring to Sen- 
ator Allison. Patient, thoughtful, and thorough attention to 
the endless details of frequent complete tariff revisions, to 
say nothing of partial revisions and attempts at revision which 
failed, followed by the prodigal expenditure of adroitness and 
skill in piloting the bills through the tortuous channels of 
legislation, and the nerve-racking task of finally adjusting in 
conference the complex differences between the two Houses — 
this is the price he paid for this title which the public bestowed 
upon him. 



Address of Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 163 

In 1865 he was assigned to the Committee on Ways and 
Means by Speaker Colfax — an unusual honor for a Member in 
his second term. He continued as a member of that committee 
during the remainder of his service in this body, and served on 
the Finance Committee in the Senate from 1877 up to the time 
of his death. He has played an important part in the prepara- 
tion and passage of every tariff bill for the past forty-five 
years. 

A careful search of the records will disclose the fad thai 
much of the tariff legislation written into our statute books 
during the last half century was actually penned by the hand 
of Senator Allison". As an example of his constructive ability 
in this direction, I might call attention to the fact that he wrote 
the tin-plate schedule which was first embodied into law in 
the McKinley tariff act of 1890 — a schedule around which 
raged more fierce political discussion than any in recent times. 
This schedule was denounced and defended from one end of the 
country to the other, and there are many people who believe 
that the heated denunciation of this particular paragraph of 
the McKinlev bill, which made it a national issue, followed as 
it was by the building up in our country of a great industry 
was one of the most important factors in elevating the beloved 
and now lamented McKinley to the Presidency of the United 
States. 

Be that as it may, it is a matter of record that Senatoi 
Allisox was the author of this particular schedule. It will be 
recalled that the Democrats had control of tin House in t he- 
Fiftieth Congress, and under the leadership of Hon. Roger O. 
Mills, of Texas, this House passed what is known as the Mills 
bill (H. R. 9051) — a complete revision of the tariff. The bill 
went to the Senate and was referred to the Finance Committee. 
The Republicans had control of the Senate in that Congress, 



164 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

and when this bill was reported to the Senate, July 21, 1888, by 
Senator Allison, the House bill was all stricken out, and in its 
place was a revision of the tariff based on the principle of pro- 
tection. An entirely new bill had been drafted by the Finance 
Committee, and in that bill appeared the first attempt to put 
a duty on tin plate. In the steel schedule of that bill is the 
following paragraph : 

147. Sheets or plates of iron and steel, oi taggers iron or steel, coated 
with tin or lead, or with a mixture of which these metals, or either of them, 
mponent part, by the dipping 01 any other process, and commer- 
cially known as tin plates, terne plates, and taggers tin, i cent per pound. 

Ila MilK bill and the Senate substitute failed of enactment, 
the two Mouses being unable to agree. 

In the succeeding Congress (the Fifty first) the Republicans 
had a majority in both the House and Senate, and the McKinley 
bill became a law October i , 1890. That bill, as reported to the 
House and finally passed, contained the tin-plate paragraph 
above quoted verbatim et literatim. 

It is no reflection upon the Committee on Ways anil Means or 
upon its distinguished chairman that they incorporated into 
their bill this paragraph and many others which had been care- 
fully worked out by the Senate committee in the previous Con- 
gress — they simply accepted the judgment of the other branch 
of Congress, formally expressed two years before. 

While Senator Allison had a large and important part in 
writing the laws which produced the revenues, he had an 
equally important part in controlling the expenditures of the 
Government. From the time of his entry into the Senate in 
1873 to the date of his death he was a member of the Commit- 
tee on Appropriations and for nearly twenty-five years its 
chairman. During his incumbency as chairman he bore the 
tremendous responsibility of scrutinizing the appropriation of 
nearly S 1 5 .< « >o,< » 10,000. 



Address of Mr. Dawson, oj Iowa 165 

Chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations means 
constant toil and labor and the performance of more legisla- 
tive drudgery than falls to the lot of any other committee. 
Senator Allison's sagacity and painstaking endeavors in this 
influential position undoubtedly saved his country millions of 
dollars. Not a penny of private gain ever came to him by his 
public service. He lived and died a poor man. 

The highest tribute which can be paid to a man's service in 
Congress is the estimate of those with whom he associates, and 
in all the history of the Senate no man has ever attained greater 
influence or higher respect and confidence of all his associates, 
without regard to party, than did Senator Allison. 

For several years prior to his death he was unanimously 
selected as chairman of the Republican caucus and also chaii 
man of the committee on the order of business, commonly 
called the "steering committee." In addition, he was empow- 
ered by the caucus to designate the other members of the steer 
ing committee and to name the committee on committees. 
The functions of these two committees, in executing the will of 
the majority party, is of (he most far-reaching importance and 
consequence. 

As is well known, the committee on committees has control 
of the assignment of Senators to committee places; in short, 
determines the personnel of the standing committees of the 
Senate. As to the steering committee, no reference to it is 
found in any of the government publications, and yel it is one 
of the most potential factors in the whole congressional legisla- 
tive machine. It is the safety valve, the governor, and the 
brakes on the wheels, all in one. On broad lines, it determines 
what legislation shall be pressed for passage and what shall 
slumber in pigeonholes. It is a shaper of party policy— the 
watchdog of legislative enactment. 



166 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

In intrusting the selection of these two committees to Senator 
Allison, more power over legislation ^could not well be con- 
ferred upon one man under a republican form of government. 
Certainly the United States Senate, regarded by some as the 
greatest legislative body in the world, could not bestow a 
greater badge of honor and confidence upon anyone. 

And with what consummate wisdom and fairness did Senator 
ALLISON make up these powerful committees. I recall his 
method of choosing the steering committee of to members. 
With approximately 60 Republican Senators, they were divided 
geographically into groups of 6, beginning with New England 
and going through to the Pacific coast. From each of these 
groups of 6 Senators he selected 1 member of the steering com 
mittee, thus giving to every section of the country a representa- 
tive upon this governing committee. 

It was this unfailing spirit of fairness, coupled with wisdom 
and unerring judgment, which enabled him to do great things. 
The guiding star of his life was that brief sentence of Bacon's: 
"Knowledge is power." 

Upon every important subject of legislation as it came up he 
worked with unflagging zeal to store his well-ordered mind with 
all the information available, and he never stopped until he 
had completely mastered the subject in detail. A close ob 
server, a careful student, a clear thinker, and eminently prac- 
tical, he proved all things and held fast to that which is good. 
As a consequence, those who were less informed, having implicit 
confidence in his judgment, were content to follow his lead, and 
I have never heard of anyone going wrong 1>\ so doing. 

For many years he sat at the head of the table of the leaders 
of the Senate — the beloved and undisputed arbiter of that body. 
When important measures of legislation were threatened with 
defeat because of the pronounced differences of men, when com- 
plex legislative situations arose, Congress instinctively turned 



Address of Mr. Dawson, of Iowa 167 

to Senator Allison to smooth over the rough places and point 
the way out of the difficulty. He possessed that rare facultj 
of harmonizing the apparently irreconcilable views of radical 
and obstinate men; his wise counsel saved many a worthy 
measure from failure. He was enabled to do this by his solid 
qualities of character, his well-poised mind, his clear percep 
tion, his patience, integrity, honesty, and single-minded 1 
tion to the interests of the people. 

Others might wrangle, but he never lost his temper. ( >thers 
might impugn the motives of men, but he was ever mindful of 
the rights of his fellows. He occupied a place above the strife 
and contention of factions; he was the embodiment of prudence, 
patriotism; always calm, serene, optimistic 

With the quiet dignity of unconscious power he modestly 
performed his tasks — doing great things, but doing them quietly. 
To him the modern idea of glory measured by newspaper head- 
lines was distasteful, almost repugnant. So content was he 
with the mere satisfaction of duty faithfully performed that 
he would not even allow his friends to claim for him the credit 
which was rightfully his. 

It was in the committee room, where the real work of Con 
gress is done, that his greatest impress on legislation was made. 
I dare say that within the four walls of the inner room of the 
Senate Committee on Appropriations more important legisla- 
tion has been put into final form and more crises in the affairs 
of the Republic have been wisely met and solved than in any 
other spot in this capital. And in it all the wise conservatism 
and keen foresight of Iowa's most distinguished statesman have 
been determining factors. 

While performing these larger tasks for the Nation, he was 
never unmindful of the interests of his State and her individual 
citizens. No man in all the history of Iowa has been so helpful 
to as many people, and an appeal from the humbles! citizen met 



[68 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allium 

the same hearty and considerate attention as did the greater 
affairs of his life. If the little things which he did for others 
could all be brought together, it would form the greatest monu- 
ment which can be erected to the conscientious devotion and 
zeal to this faithful public servant. 

But Senator Allison is loved not only for what he did, but 
lor what he was. He had a most attractive personality. 
Amiable in disposition, cordial in his bearing, his unfailing 
courtesy, quiet temperament, and charm of manner won for him 
the last in- esteem and admiration of all with whom he came 
in contact. His private life was as free from blemish as his 
public life was from the breath of scandal. A prodigious 
worker, he found relaxation and recreation in the quiet of his 
library here in Washington or at his home in Dubuque, with the 
companionship of his friends and his books and papers. 

When George Washington died it was said of him that Provi- 
dence left him childless in order that he might be in a closer 
sense the Father of his Country. Senator ALLISON, when bereft 
of his chosen companion, gave Ins whole life to the service of 
his country and his country alone. His highest ambition was 
the happiness and welfare of the people. 

His memory will always be cherished not only for his great- 
ness but for his goodness. Long association demonstrated to 
me that the strongest personal trait of this great man was his 
kindliness of heart and the consideration he invariably showed 
toward others. 1 never heard him utter an unkind word of a 
fellow-man, and he never harbored resentment toward another, 
no matter how great the provocation. 

Possessed of a nature at once amiable and unselfish, he won 
his way into the affections of the people by his sincerity and 
strength, his generosity and kindliness. He was a living 
exemplification of the Golden Rule, and Ins lovable character 
and noble spirit has enshrined him for all time in the hearts of 
the people of his State and country. 



Address of Mr. Hamilton, of Iowa [69 



Address of Mr. Hamilton, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: Not having been personally acquainted with 
Senator Allison and only serving one session in this House 
while he served his last term in the Senate, I can not speak of 
him personally, but only as one of his constitutents who for 
years held him in high regard, though differing politically. 
Senator Allison's name in his home Stale was known l>\ 1 
man, woman, and child. It was known to be revered, whether 
they agreed with him politically or otherwise. He was lool ed 
upon as being conscientious in whatever work he undertook to 
accomplish. And it seems to me the life and success of every 
man in this world is measured by what they accomplish and 
not by what they profess. Senator Allison made no vaunting 
profession, but steadily worked at his task until he had accom 
plished as nearly as possible the purpose in view. He was nol 
one of those statesmen that we hear spoken of as a man who 
keeps his ear to the ground, but he was of thai class of stales 
men upon whom, after the man who keeps his tar to the -round 
and has perhaps mistaken the current there received ami 
stirred by agitation the minds of the populace and caused all 
sorts of turmoil and disturbance, it rested to pour oil on the 
troubled waters and to bring out of this chaotic condition the 
legislation necessary for the progress and prosperity of his 
country. 

This was the sphere he occupied as a statesman. No 
agitator, but one who steadily ground out those things which 
are absolutely necessary for the general welfare of the whole 
country. Not only did he occupy this position as a statesman 



i;<> Memorial Addresses: William B, Allison 

in the halls of legislation, but my friends upon the floor of the 
House well know that he occupied a like position in one of the 
great political parties of this country with whom he had cast 
hi s lot—that political party which, whether we admit wisely 
or unwisely, has brought forth practically all the legislation 
for the last forty years, that has controlled the affairs of this 
country. In that political party he was also a peacemaker, 
and in their partisan difficulties, in their political strifes, it 
was he, not only in the State of Iowa, but in the Nation, that 
many times the leaders of his party went to in order that 
they might smooth over the difficulties that had arisen. 

He always had a keen appreciation of the many diversified 
interests of the country — realizing that in order to carry out 
thai principle, "the greatest good to the greatest number," it 
was necessary to concede many [joints in order to harmonize 
all. Like many others, he at one time possessed the ambition 
to be 1 'resident of the United States. He, however, did not 
allow his personal ambition to overcome his never wavering 
devotion to his party or his country. Personal ambition with 
him was secondary to public service. 

Therefore 1 say upon this occasion that he was one of that 
class of men that the country most needs— a man who, as has 
been slated here to-day, is capable of taking hold of the loose 
ends that have been unraveled by the strife of others, and by 
his ] lower of compromise, his power almost of convincing a 
man against his will; by that power which he possessed he has 
done more, in iny judgment, toward the legislation that has 
been placed upon the statute books of this country in the last 
forty years than any other one man in this Nation; and, as I 
suggested a moment ago, while not personally acquainted with 
Senator Allison, when I attended his funeral and saw the 
thousands of his neighbors and friends who lined the streets as 



Address of Mr, Hamilton, of Iowa 171 

his remains were taken to their last resting place, I could not 
help realizing that he was a man of a kind heart and of a li 
disposition, else not this demonstration. 

I will say in conclusion that he has left us a statesmanship 
to be emulated, but one difficult to surpass. 



Mciiw)/<il Addn sst ?: William B. Allison 



Address of Mk. Kennedy, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker, 1 heard Senator Harlan relate how William 
Boyd Allison came to enter congressional life. He had taken 
quite an active interest in public affairs in Iowa and had ren- 
dered valuable service to Governor Kirkwood in raising troops 
to be sent to the front during the war. Early in the sixties he 
was a candidate for district attorney for the district of Iowa, 
and having received the indorsement of the two Senators from 
Iowa, he came to Washington In look after the matter of his 
appointment, and while there was a guest of Senator Harlan, 
fur some reason the senior .Senator found it necessary to with- 
draw his indorsement, and of course he failed to receive the 
appointment. Mrs. Harlan, realizing how keenly he felt the 
disappointment, suggested that he return to Iowa and secure 
the nomination for Congress. He acted on the suggestion and 
returned as a Member of the next House, thus starting a con- 
gressional career which, in length of service, has not been ex- 
ceeded in the annals of American statesmanship and, in the 
point of accomplishment, not excelled in the past half century. 

It was not my good fortune to have had a personal acquaint- 
ance with Senator Allison until I came to Washington as a 
Member of the Sixtieth Congress. 1 remember, however, the 
fust visit I had with the Senator, when I called at his apart- 
ments on his invitation. In talking over the matter of what I 
expected in the way of committee assignments, lie suggested 
that I ask for an assignment to a committee where (he work 
would be congenial, slating thai il was not within the compass 
ill' tlie human mind to fully master all the subjects of legisla- 



, iddrei s of Mr. Ken Towa i 73 

tion; that this was an age of specialists, and a Member could 
serve his country best by striving to thoroughly familiarize 

himself with some particular line of work. I thought at thai 
time how much Senator Allison had accomplished by follow 
ing that course during his life in Congress. 

Early in his career he secured membership on the two great 
committees of appropriations and finance and became an au- 
thority on matters pertaining to the work of those committees. 

Senator Allison had a natural aptitude for legislation. His 
industry, tact, patience, and consideration for the views of 
others were valuable assets when it came to harmonizing differ- 
ences of opinion on some important matter oi legislation. It 
lias been said of Senator A.LLISON that he put the finishing 
touches on more legislation than any man who has served in 
Congress in the past twenty-five years. 

It is seldom a man receives the full measure of credit foi 
work performed during his lifetime by the generation in which 
he lived, but future historians, in reviewing the work of Con- 
gress for the past half century, will accord to Senator Allison 
no inconspicuous place in the galaxy of American statesmen. 



174 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 



Address of Mr. Smith, of Iowa 

Mr. .Speaker: William B. Allison was reared and largely 
educated in Ohio, but it was Iowa that gave him to the X at ion 
and to history. It was Iowa that gave him that long tenure 
of public place essential to enable the country to understand 
so great, but so quiet and so unostentatious, a man. 

The State of Iowa is not without her pride in her great Sena- 
tors, Grimes, Harlan, Wright, Wilson, Kirkwood, and Gear, and 
her great jurists, Miller, Dillon, and McCrary, and her great 
soldiers, Curtis and Dodge; but never, perhaps, will the history 
of Iowa contain another name of which she will be so proud as 
that of William B. Allison. 

His early life did not differ from that of thousands of Ameri- 
can boys born and reared on frontier farms. Born of Scotch- 
Irish parents, David Robinson, jr., one of Allison's school- 
mates at Worcester Academy and Western Reserve College, in 
a letter to Miss Carrie Harrison, quotes Judge John Baxter, 
late United States circuit judge, as saying that Senator Allison 
was reared on the Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith, and a pretty light diet on Sunday. In the 
lapse of nearly four-score years he never escaped from the 
.influence of that training, and was molded by it all the days 
of his life. 

When there came at the close of the dark ages an awakening 
of the human intellect, there was produced an age of scholas- 
ticism; and from that time to our own a familiarity with the 
classics has been regarded as almost the one essential of a liberal 
education. It was only yesterday that this notion began to be 



Address 0} Mr. Smith, oj Iowa 1,5 

abandoned at the universities. William B. Allison, practical 
even in his boyhood, was never a brilliant success in the classics, 
but excelled all his associates in such practical studies as 
orthography and mathematics. 

His public service as a Representative of Iowa commenced 
in i860, when, with the Hon. William P. Hepburn and many 
subsequently noted in Iowa's history, he represented that State 
in the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the 
Presidency. Forty-four years later he headed the Iowa dele- 
gation to the convention that nominated Roosevelt and Fair- 
banks. 

He became a Member of this House March 4, 1863. The other 
Iowa Members at that time were: 

James F. Wilson, long chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
one of the managers on the part of the House in the impeach- 
ment of President Johnson, and later for many years the col 
league of Senator Allison in the Senate. 

Hiram Price, who bore the reputation of being better able to 
tell what the people of the country wanted and would demand 
than any man in public life in his time. 

J. B. Grinned, a sturdy enemy of slavery, whose name has 
been given to a prosperous Iowa city and to an excellent and 
growing college within that Stale. 

John A. Kassou, long celebrated in American politics, and a 
distinguished American diplomatic representative abroad, si, 11 
living in this city. 

There was also Judge Hubbard, the brilliant ami able father 
of the present Member from the Eleventh District of fo 

That was an illustrious company Mr. Allison met in his first 
Congress: Thaddeus Stevens, Owen Lovejoy, Henr) Winter 
Davis, Elihu B. Washburn, George W. Julian. John A 1 
well, George S. Boutwell, Henry L. Dawes, Reuben E. Fenton, 



1 76 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

Robert C. Schenck, fames A. Garfield, William D. Kelly, James 
G. Blaine, Schuyler Colfax, S. S. Cox, and George H. Pendleton. 

Surrounded by such men William B. Allison became, in his 
second term, a Member of the Ways and Means Committee of 
this body. That committee was then of even greater importance 
than now, for it had all its present jurisdiction and all that of 
the Committee 011 Appropriations, and all the appropriating 
jurisdiction of the Committees on Military, Naval, Foreign, and 
Indian Affairs, and of the Committees on Agriculture and Post 
Offices and Post-Roads. 

To acquire so soon an appointment on such a committee, even 
in the time of peace, would have been unusual, but to have 
acquired it during the civil war in a Congress embracing such 
distinguished men as I have mentioned and many more was, 
indeed, extraordinary. 

Mr. Allison served eight years in this body and more than 
thirty-five years in the Senate. His service in the .Senate was 
longer than was ever accorded any American citizen, and his 
combined service in the two Houses was longer than that of any 
other man in American history, save one. Those who have 
known him best in his later life, when sobered by time and 
responsibilities, have always regarded him as distinctly con- 
servative, but in his early history he was constantly referred 
to as an earnest radical. 

In 1878, when a free-silver hill had passed this House and 
the political parties were vying with each other in their efforts 
to pander to the sentiment for free silver, it was William B. 
Allison who had the courage to defy public sentiment and to 
defeat that project, now substantially unanimously conceded 
to have been a highly vicious one. For more than thirty 
years William B. Allison has been the most powerful single 



Address of Mr. Smith, oj \-- 

individual in either House of Congress, and the statemenl of 
William E. Curtis is the simple truth, thai 

William B. Allison- has written more into the laws of his country than 
any other statesman in any nation of the world. 

William B. Allison was never spectacular; but he was an 
able, high-minded, earnest, patriotic man, with supreme confi- 
dence in his country and its future; and it is no exaggeration 
to say that while others have with greatei dash and brilliancy 
accomplished more in a given length of time, his abilitj .md 
nearly half a century of service have enabled him to render his 
country more of valuable service in the aggregate than has been 
rendered by any other man in the American Congress in all its 
history. 

So applicable to Senator Allison are the words of Garfield 
concerning Senator Sherman, I use them with but slight neees 
sary modification: 

"You ask for his monument. I point you In forty-five years oi 
national statutes. Not one great beneficent law has been placi d 
on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid. 
He aided in formulating the laws to raise the great armies 
and navies which carried us through the war. His hand was 
seen in the workmanship of those statutes that restored and 
brought back 'the unity and married calm of the States.' I lis 
hand was in all that great legislation that created the wai 
currency, and in the still greater work that redeemed the 
promises of the Government and made that currencj equal to 
gold. For forty-five years he has trodden the perilous heights 
of public duty and against all the shafts of malice lias borne 
his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of that 
fierce light that beats against the throne,' but its fiercest ray 
has found no flaw in his armor and no stain upon his shield." 
78] is- S. Doc. 766, 60 2 12 



178 Memorial Addresses: William B. Allison 

If all the countless hosts of those who have known and loved 
William B. Allison were asked what his most distinguished 
characteristic was, each would in substance say, " His kindliness 
of soul." 

This man made every acquaintance a friend by his loving 

kindness. This dear, kind, lovable old man left no immediate 

family to mourn his departure, but the people of this nation 

had become to him as his family, and, molded by a mother's 

Christian teachings and mellowed by age, his loving kindness 

took in all the children of the Republic; and so, when he died, 

although neither father nor mother, nor sister nor brother, nor 

wife nor child of his blood attended thcobsequies, the people, 

whose friend and beloved he was, sincerely mourned. 

Truly, 

Kind words are more than coronets, 
And simple faith than Norman bl 1 

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